According to WEEI’s Rob Bradford, the Boston Red Sox are hoping to have their coaching staff vacancies filled before the Christmas holiday. 

Currently on the Sox’s coaching staff is manager Bobby Valentine, hitting coach Dave Magadan, third base coach Tim Bogar and bullpen coach Gary Tuck. With these positions already filled, GM Ben Cherington needs to find a bench coach, first base coach and pitching coach to complete the coaching staff.

These openings came to be after bench coach DeMarlo Hale decided to leave the Red Sox to join the Baltimore Orioles organization, pitching coach Curt Young decided to return to Oakland to be the A’s pitching coach and first base coach Rob Johnson was fired by the team. 

As for their rumored replacements, Cherington was able to confirm that former Astros pitching coach Brad Arnsberg and Rays minor league pitching coach Neil Allen have been interviewed for the pitching coach position. According to Bradford, there has also been speculation that current third base coach Tim Bogar could either slide over to first base or be the team’s bench coach next season, creating another vacancy. Either way, it appears that we will have a resolution sooner rather than later on who will be on Bobby V’s coaching staff next season.

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The Boston Red Sox have reached agreement on a one-year major league contract with free-agent catcher Kelly Shoppach, almost certainly ending team captain Jason Varitek’s 15-year career in Boston.

A source told ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick the 31-year-old Shoppach will make a base salary of $1.35 million, plus performance bonuses.

The Red Sox announced the signing Tuesday night.

For the soon-to-be-40-year-old Varitek, the Shoppach deal should make official what Ben Cherington hinted at the winter meetings last week: that the catcher’s tenure in Boston was over. His 15 years, 1,488 games and 190 homers at the position are the most in team history.

“I have a great deal of respect for both [Varitek and Tim Wakefield] and feel like the best thing for the team and the best thing for them is, if there’s not a real role on the team, I’m not sure it’s fair, I’m not sure it’s the right thing for them or for the team, but we haven’t gotten to that point yet,” said Cherington, who did not offer Varitek arbitration. “I’ll talk to them again when we get closer to that.”

Shoppach made $3 million last year in Tampa Bay, where he hit .176 in 87 games. He joins incumbent catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who hit .235 with 16 homers and 56 RBIs in 103 games for the Red Sox last season. The acquisition of Shoppach, regarded primarily for his defense, raises questions about the team’s plans for top prospect Ryan Lavarnway, who seemed to be the front-runner to be Saltalamacchia’s backup.

This will be Shoppach’s second stint with the Red Sox, who selected him out of Baylor University in the second round of the 2001 draft. Shoppach spent five years in the Boston organization before going to Cleveland as part of a seven-player trade in 2006 that brought Coco Crisp in return. At one point early in his career, he was considered the team’s eventual successor to Varitek.

Shoppach’s best season came in 2008, when he hit .261 with 21 homers and 55 RBIs for the Indians. Since then, he has seen his production numbers decline each season. He does, however, seem to be a logical complement to Saltalamacchia. Among active catchers, Shoppach’s career .909 OPS against lefties is fourth-highest in the majors. Saltalamacchia, meanwhile, has a .603 OPS against left-handed pitching.

Last season, Shoppach had 7 homers and a .788 OPS in 108 at-bats against southpaws. Varitek had a .749 OPS and 2 homers in 72 at-bats versus lefties. Shoppach threw out 41 percent of base-stealers (18 out of 44) last season, tops in the American League. Varitek threw out just 14 percent (12 out of 85).

Varitek — who earlier this offseason said he was committed to playing in 2012, in Boston or elsewhere — leaves behind a legacy of leadership in Boston. Saltalamacchia told ESPNBoston.com last week that he tried to glean as much as he could from the captain last season.

“I knew last year it could be my last time with [Varitek], just like the year before when I got traded over here,” Saltalamacchia said. “I tried to gain as much as I could from him, and we still have communication. That line is always going to be open, regardless if he’s with me or not. I took advantage of every opportunity I had with him. To be able to play a full year and watch him really helped me grow as a player, and that’s really going to help me succeed.”

He wasn’t the only catcher on the Red Sox roster to express his admiration for Varitek.

“Jason Varitek has been an absolute icon, not only in the Boston community but in my heart for a very long time,” Lavarnway told ESPNBoston.com last week. “He’s been my favorite catcher that I watched growing up, and if he doesn’t come back next year and I have the opportunity to get some more innings and try to make a bigger impact on this team, the biggest thing I know is that I’m not going to try to be Jason Varitek. I’m going to be Ryan Lavarnway, and I’m going to do the things that I do well to help the team win.”

New Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said last week that he did not plan to name a captain if Varitek did not return.

Information from ESPNBoston.com’s Gordon Edes and Joe McDonald was used in this report.

Red Sox slugger David Ortiz accepted the team’s offer for salary arbitration, according to the team’s official web site.

With a few hours left before Wednesday’s midnight deadline, Ortiz’s representatives informed the Red Sox that the slugger had accepted the club’s offer of arbitration, according to boston.redsox.mlb.com.

Though the acceptance of arbitration guarantees Ortiz will return to the Red Sox for one more season, the designated hitter still has hopes of getting a multiyear deal before the process ends in January.

In arbitration, Ortiz would get a raise from the $12.5 million salary he earned in 2011, perhaps making as much as $14 million to $15 million. The Red Sox had offered him a two-year, $18 million deal.

The decision by Ortiz to remain with the Red Sox came hours after he was named the Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter for the sixth time in his career, and first since 2007.

“Well, when you have someone who wins an individual award and honor the previous season, you’re always excited about him being on the team, and last year David – I guess it’s just been announced, he’s the DH of the year, and how could I not be excited about having the DH of the year as a DH?” Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said.

Ortiz. 36, hit .309 with 29 home runs last year. He also re-established his ability to hit left-handed pitching.

A man who worked in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse when he was a teenager in the 1990s said Monday that then clubhouse manager Donald Fitzpatrick, who died in 2005, sexually abused him.

At a news conference Monday, Charles Crawford said Fitzpatrick assaulted him twice inside the clubhouse at fabled Fenway Park — once in an equipment room and once in a restroom. He was 16 at the time, and his accusation renews a scandal that the club has dealt with before.

While Fitzpatrick is dead and the statute of limitations has expired for filing lawsuits over the alleged incidents, Crawford and another Massachusetts man — who has asked not to be identified — are accusing Fitzpatrick and seeking $5 million settlements from the club.

“People need to know what happened,” Crawford said. “It’s still mind-boggling to me.”

Crawford said he decided to come forward now after US Senator Scott Brown’s revelation earlier this year that he was molested by a counselor at a summer camp when he was 10 and the more recent sexual abuse allegations made against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

The scandal that rocked Penn State has been followed by an investigation into accusations of molestation against a Syracuse University assistant basketball coach.

Crawford is not the first to accuse Fitzpatrick, who pleaded guilty in Florida in 2002 to attempted sexual battery on a child under the age of 12.

The Red Sox also settled a lawsuit with seven Florida men who said Fitzpatrick molested them during the team’s spring training beginning in the 1970s.

In a statement, Red Sox lawyer Daniel Goldberg said the club “have always viewed the actions of Mr. Fitzpatrick to be abhorrent.”

“When the team, then under a previous ownership group, became aware of the allegations against Mr. Fitzpatrick in 1991, he was promptly relieved of his duties,” Goldberg said.

He said the Red Sox did not have specific information on the two most recent allegations and would not comment further.

BOSTON (WFAN/AP) — A man who had his “dream job” working in the Red Sox clubhouse as a teenager says that ended abruptly when the clubhouse manager sexually assaulted him.

Charles Crawford is one of two Massachusetts men accusing Donald Fitzpatrick of abusing them in the early 1990s.  The other is a former batboy who is keeping his identity anonymous.

Crawford said at a news conference Monday that Fitzpatrick assaulted him twice in the clubhouse at Fenway Park.

The statute of limitations has expired for filing a lawsuit or seeking criminal charges against Fitzpatrick, who died in 2005. Both men are asking for $5 million settlements.

In 2002, Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty in Florida to attempted sexual battery on a child under 12. The following year, the team settled a lawsuit with seven Florida men who said Fitzpatrick molested them during spring training beginning in the 1970s.

The New York Daily News reports that Red Sox team executives have agreed to meet with Crawford’s attorney Mitchell Garabedian to “resolve this matter.”  Garabedian expects that additional victims will come forward with further claims against Fitzpatrick.

“It would not be surprising if other victims come forward.  Fitzpatrick was a serial pedophile,” Garabedian told The Daily News.

The Red Sox took action against Fitzpatrick in 1991 when they became aware of the situation by relieving him of his clubhouse duties.  Red Sox counselman Daniel Goldberg spoke about the matter to The Boston Globe.

“The Red Sox have always viewed the actions of Mr. Fitzpatrick to be abhorrent.  When the team, then under a previous ownership group, became aware of the allegations against Mr. Fitzpatrick in 1991, he was promptly relieved of his duties.  The club is unaware of any specifics regarding the matters brought forward recently by two individuals,’’ Goldberg stated.

Previously, the Red Sox paid $100,000 to a former clubhouse attendant who displayed a banner in front of television cameras reading “Donald Fitzpatrick Sexually Assaulted Me” during a 1991 West Coast trip.  More recently, the Red Sox reached a 2003 settlement for $3.15 million with seven accusers after Fitzpatrick was found guilty in 2002 for attempted sexual battery during Spring Training in the early 1970?s.

Garabedian successfully sued the Archdiocese of Boston and Reverend John Geoghan for $95 million after a well-documented sexual abuse scandal.

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