NORTH SHORE – (Radio) The baseball winter meetings started yesterday in Orlando, FL and one of the major objectives for Red Sox General Manager Dave Dombrowski is to add a power bat to their 2018 line-up. Baseball Insider Andy Carbone has additional Red Sox news and notes from the team and Major League Baseball.
Baseball Insider Andy Carbone with Bill Newell
NAVIGATORS ADD PAIR OF TUFTS JUMBOS TO 2018 ROSTER
LYNN — The Futures Collegiate Baseball League’s North Shore Navigators added two more players to their roster for the upcoming 2018 summer season, as general manager Bill Terlecky announced on Monday that Tufts University infielder/pitcher Elias Varinos and outfielder JP Knight will join the club.
“Tufts is another Division III powerhouse whose players have found success at Fraser Field in the past, so I’m excited to welcome JP and Elias to the Navigators,” Terlecky said. “JP has great potential, while Elias was a key contributor to last year’s Tufts team and someone we were familiar through his family ties to us.”
In signing with the Navs, Varinos follows in the footsteps of his older brother, Speros, who was a two-time All-FCBL selection and its Relief Pitcher of the Year in 2015. A 5-foot-10, 170-pound Middleton native, Elias was a two-way player during his freshman season at Tufts, recording two extra-base hits in 21 at-bats, while going 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA in six appearances on the mound. Varinos was a four-year varsity player and two-time captain at Masconomet Regional High School in Boxford, where he earned Cape Ann League MVP and Boston Herald All-Scholastic honors twice and was a member of a Division II state championship team in 2014.
Knight played in eight games during his first season as a Jumbo, going 1-for-7 with a walk, four runs scored, and an RBI. The Boston native recorded his first collegiate hit against Eastern Nazarene and the RBI against St. Vincent. He was a team captain and an Independent School League Honorable Mention selection at Roxbury Latin School, where he played baseball, basketball, and football.
Both players are expected to contribute to the Jumbos after solid efforts during their first collegiate summer. Knight played in 32 games for the New York Collegiate Baseball League’s Genesee Rapids, hitting two home runs and driving in 15, while Varinos hit .387 in 20 games and threw nine innings of one-run ball locally with the Phillies of the local North Shore Baseball League.
“It is exciting to have JP and Elias playing for the Navigators as several Tufts players have enjoyed their time with the team and felt it was a great experience,” said Jumbos head coach John Casey, who enters the spring of 2018 with 699 career victories. “It is a neat situation where the guys play close to home and we as coaches get to see several games as well.”
Tufts finished 30-10-1 in 2017, making it one of six NCAA Division III teams from New England to win at least 30 games on the season. Navs alums Nick Falkson (2016-17), Tim Superko (2015), and Speros Varinos (2015-16) were members of last season’s Jumbos, the fifth New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) championship team in Tufts history. Falkson was named NESCAC Player of the Year, while Varinos repeated as Pitcher of the Year.
The Navigators will be announcing more additions to the roster in the coming weeks and months in preparation for the 2018 season, which begins on May 31.
