Jason Varitek to announce retirement from baseball on Thursday  —  FORT MYERS, Fla. — Jason Varitek, a two-time World Series champion and the captain of the Red Sox from 2005-11, will announce his retirement here on Thursday, sources told the Globe today.  —  Varitek is expected to stay with the organization in some capacity.

NY Mets' David Wright is unimpressed with Jeff Wilpon's ‘Underdog’ T-Shirt motivational tactics  —  Cartoon shirt gets under third baseman's skin  —  David Wright isn't thrilled with the “Underdog” T-shirt motivational ploy from ownership.  —  PORT ST. LUCIE — Can even Underdog save the Mets?

Free-agent fantasy  —  Would Trout, Harper and Moore get more on the open market than Darvish?  —  Baseball Prospectus  —  If there is one thing we learned from the $111.7 million (including posting fee) that the Texas Rangers spent on Yu Darvish this winter, it's this …

Scott Sizemore out for season with torn ACL in left knee  —  Scott Sizemore injured his left knee during a fielding drill on Saturday and the Athletics just announced that he'll miss the entire 2012 season due to a torn ACL.  Jane Lee of MLB.com reports that the 27-year-old will be reevaluated in two weeks before surgery is scheduled.

Cards, Molina soon to finalize extension  —  JUPITER, Fla. — Citing an unnamed source, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a report on Monday stating that the Cardinals and catcher Yadier Molina are expected to finalize terms of a multiyear extension by the end of the week.

Reds Extend Sean Marshall  —  The Reds announced a three-year extension with lefty reliever Sean Marshall, which runs through 2015.  The contract is worth $16.5MM, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.  Rosenthal notes there's $2MM in performance bonuses each year, $1MM for games started and $1MM for games finished.

Royals To Extend Salvador Perez  —  The Royals announced that they signed catcher Salvador Perez to a five-year contract that includes three club options.  Perez will earn a guaranteed $7MM over the course of the five-year contract, Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star reports (Twitter links).

Magic Johnson leads one of seven Dodgers bidding groups to advance  —  The owner of the Memphis Grizzlies and a Milwaukee Brewers investor are in two groups eliminated from the process Monday.  Sources say Johnson's group is among five potential owners with L.A. ties that remain in contention.

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong  —  In Defense of Ryan Braun  —  The undeniable idiocy of baseball's steroids “crisis”  —  The system, we are told, worked.  That's always the second-last refuge of scoundrels.  The system, we were told after the Watergate scandal, had “worked,” even though it hadn't, not fully.

Pettitte: I could still do this (but I won't) — plus camp photos  —  It was a nice surprise to have Andy Pettitte show up in Yankees camp today.  The lefty, retired for more than a year, is in town to see what life is like as a Yankees celebrity coach.  He's lobbying to throw …