McClure, while Varitek taught Saltalamacchia how to handle the individual personalities of members of the Red Sox' starting rotation like Josh Beckett, John Lackey, and Jon Lester. This comfort appeared to translate to Saltalamacchia's batting as well: by the start of August, he had already set career highs in runs, doubles, triples, home runs, RBIs, walks, slugging percentage, and on-base plus slugging (OPS). Saltalamacchia played in 103 games for Boston in 2011, closing out the season with a .235 batting average, a .450 slugging percentage, a .288 on-base percentage (OBP), 16 home runs, 56 RBIs, and 52 runs scored in 358 at-bats. On January 15, 2012, Saltalamacchia avoided contract arbitration when the Red Sox signed him to a new one-year, $2.5 million deal. With Varitek's offseason retirement, Saltalamacchia became the de facto leader of Boston's "Wolf Pack" of catchers, a group that also included Kelly Shoppach, Ryan Lavarnway, and Luis Exposito. The veteran Shoppach joined Saltalamacchia as a mentor for the team, both with the younger catchers and with the Red Sox pitching staff. While Saltalamacchia served as the everyday catcher for Boston, Shoppach would frequently get the nod against left-handed pitchers, against whom Saltalamacchia was less effective. After the first half of the season saw Saltalamacchia make an All-Star case with 15 home runs and a .537 slugging percentage, he seemed to collapse in August, finishing the year with 139 strikeouts in 405 at-bats. In 121 games for the Red Sox in 2012, Saltalamacchia batted .273, with 65 RBIs and 58 runs scored. He put up middling offensive numbers for the season, with a .288 OBP and 1.2 Wins Above Replacement, but his 25 home runs were one short of the single-season franchise record among catchers, which was set by Carlton Fisk in both 1973 and 1977. His troubles were more defensive: only 18.4 percent of attempted runners were caught stealing by Saltalamacchia, down from 30.8 percent the previous year, and he struggled to call games: Red Sox pitchers in 2012 had a combined 4.84 earned run average (ERA) with Saltalamacchia behind the plate, compared to 4.51 with other catchers. The offseason signing of veteran catcher David Ross placed Saltalamacchia in competition with Lavarnway for the remaining position behind the plate. Boston general manager Ben Cherington ultimately optioned Lavarnway to Triple-A, keeping Ross and Saltalamacchia as his major league catching staff for the 2013 season. The season turned out