Catcher Jason Varitek prepares to take batting practice during his workout yesterday in Fort Myers.

The Journal / Bob Breidenbach

FORT MYERS, Fla. — When he’s home in Georgia during the offseason, Jason Varitek tends to tune out the business of baseball.

He still keeps in touch with some teammates and maintains his conditioning, but otherwise remains blissfully ignorant about what’s going on in and around the game.

Mostly.

But Jorge Posada’s contract?

“You mean the four-year deal?” Varitek said yesterday, unable to surpress a smile.

Varitek had a vested interest in taking note of Posada’s landmark four-year, $52.2-million deal with the New York Yankees. Both men are about the same age — Varitek will turn 36 in April; Posada will be 37 in August; both are veteran catchers playing for successful, large-market teams; and while Varitek is captain of his team and Posada is not, both players provide leadership and are integral to the success of their respective pitching staffs.

It was Posada’s good fortune to enjoy a career year at the plate (.338-20-90) at a time when he was about to hit the free-agent market. Posada has, in fact, been a significantly better offensive player over the course of his career, five times topping the 90-RBI mark, something Varitek has never done.

But if Posada is worth some $13 million annually, surely Varitek can’t be too far behind. It’s a benchmark worth noting as the Red Sox captain enters the final year of his four-year, $40-million deal, agreed to months after the Sox won their first World Series, in 2004.

At the winter meetings in December, as the Red Sox front office perused an off-season to-do list, the team set a goal of talking to Varitek about a possible contract extension. That has yet to take place, but could soon, once Scott Boras, the catcher’s agent, is finished with salary-arbitration hearings.

“I really have to sit down with Scott and discuss my feelings and my options,” said Varitek yesterday after a question-and-answer session with reporters. “Then we’ll get together with the team and see where things stand.”

Varitek’s timing could hardly be better. Catching may have supplanted pitching as the game’s hardest-to-find commodity and the upcoming free-agent market presents the Red Sox with few alternatives. The only catcher in Varitek’s class will be Detroit’s Ivan Rodriguez, who will be 37 in November.

Then there is the general paucity of major-league-ready catching prospects in the Red Sox’ system. George Kottaras had a disastrous first half at Pawtucket last year and still needs to refine his defensive game.

Dusty Brown, who expects to share some playing time at Triple A with Kottaras, is solid throwing and receiving, but hasn’t demonstrated that he can hit yet. Finally, there is Mark Wagner, perhaps the organization’s best overall catching prospect. But Wagner hasn’t played above Single A to date — he’s expected to open this year at Double A Portland — and is, at minimum, three years from the majors.

Varitek would prefer to finish his career as a member of the Red Sox, whom he first joined in 1997.

“It’s important to me,” he said, “because I feel like (being a member of the Sox) is part of my blood.”

But getting Varitek to agree to the proverbial hometown discount won’t be easy, especially with Boras driving the negotiations.

Though the Red Sox have a good working relationship with Boras — he will represent four of the team’s nine starting-position players this season and at least two members of the pitching staff — the agent has a history of advising clients against signing contracts just as they approach free agency.

His logic, which is hard to argue, is that going on the open market dramatically improves a player’s bargaining power, since other teams and offers serve to drive up the asking price.

It’s worth noting, however, that Varitek has once before bucked Boras’s recommendation when he agreed to a three-year, $14.9-million deal 2002 and in so doing, sacrificed a number of trips to the arbitration table, where the gains could have been greater.

The Sox, meanwhile, could give themselves leverage if they’re able to secure a young catcher who’s ready to take over the job in 2009. But their efforts to deal for young catchers such as Jarrod Saltalamacchia (Texas) or Jeff Clement (Seattle) have so far proven futile.

smcadam@projo.com