Jason Varitek is getting his knee scoped today and is lost to the Red Sox for a minimum of 4-6 weeks. Any time a team loses it’s starting catcher, let alone it’s captain, that is cause for major concern. Coupled with the injuries to the pitching staff (Clement is done for the year, while Foulke and Wakefield are still on the DL as well) & OF Trot Nixon, it would appear that the Red Sox are in for a really rough patch. Or are they?

Before going down, Varitek was hitting around .240 with low power numbers compared to what he has historically been able to produce. There’s no questioning his value to the pitching staff, but Doug Mirabelli is not a slouch behind the plate either. The real question is going to be if Boston can go out and add another catcher to back up Mirabelli, or even to fill in for Varitek. The current backup for the Sox is veteran castoff Ken “I Heart” Huckabee, who was batting a robust .206 for AAA Pawtucket at the time of his callup.

The Sox are built on defense this year, and there’s still plenty of offense to go around with Manny, Ortiz, Lowell, and Youkillis. If Wily Mo can produce like he did two nights ago, when he hit a towering blast that would’ve cleared the Prudential, then the Sox can likely ride it out. But it does mean that the Sox are going to likely be running out 2 well-below average offensive players in Alex Gonzalez and Mirabelli/Huckabee every night. On nights when Ramirez and Ortiz are scuffling, there’s not going to be a lot down in the order for the Sox to fall back on. On nights like those, the pitching has to come around and help out.

And that’s where the Sox are perhaps in trouble, on those nights. Outside of Schilling, Beckett (who has been awful at times), and the rookie lefty Lester, there’s no one in the rotation to count on. Wakefield is desperately needed to fill a spot in that rotation and the Sox are clinging to hope that David Wells’ first outing 2 nights ago will be an abberation.

The good thing for the Sox is that the White Sox are scuffling, Liriano is skipping a start for the Twins with elbow issues (they say they’re just being cautious), and the Jays are fading fast. For all the talk that the wild card wasn’t coming out of the AL East this year, right now it’s the same old Yankees and Red Sox occupying the AL East and Wildcard top spots. So while Varitek’s absence will be felt by the Sox, I think they’ve still got enough to hang on. And when he gets back, perhaps he’ll be revitalized.