Outfielder Alex Verdugo crossed enemy lines after the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees agreed on a four-player trade this past offseason, giving the centerpiece of the 2020 Mookie Betts deal a clean slate in the Big Apple.
So far, no good for the clean-shaven, pinstripe-wearing Verdugo, who’s failure to breakout in Boston has followed the 28-year-old to New York at the worst possible time for the Yankees. Although the acquisition of Verdugo was low-risk considering New York’s only on the hook for one season — Verdugo becomes a free agent following this season — the swap has still proven itself to be a failure for the Yankees. With 32 games remaining in the regular season for New York, the organization has discovered it can’t count on Verdugo to be its reliable third outfielder alongside All-Star’s Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.
“(I’m) pretty frustrated,” Verdugo said, per Brendan Kuty of The Athletic. “Missing a lot of pitches that I (expletive) normally hit. Can’t go to left field the way I normally do and every time that I do hit the ball hard and make a good swing, it seems to be right at somebody or somebody makes a play. Right now, we’re wearing it. But like I said, we’ve got the team (expletive) doing their job, picking me up and at least I’m doing good defensively. On that side of it, I’m doing what I can do to help out the team, but we’ve got to stay positive here, man. It’s a grind and it’s one of those things that, we’re close. It seems like we’re so far away, but we’re close.”
Verdugo’s hitting struggles have been glaring, especially since the MLB All-Star break. He’s slashed an underwhelming .200/.284/.296, going 23-for-115 with one home run, nine RBIs and 20 strikeouts in the second half of the season, which Verdugo attributed to an odd allergic reaction caused by his tattoo ink and the material used to make his batting gloves. Defective batting gloves or not, Verdugo’s offense has only anchored the Yankees — and it hasn’t gotten any better. In August, Verdugo’s batted .157/.247/.243 with 11 hits in 70 at-bats, which isn’t an encouraging indicator with New York in a division race with more to prove than any other team in the American League.
“At the end of the day, we’re winning,” Verdugo said, per Kuty. “That’s all that matters. Take it for what it is, but we’re definitely grinding. Going through (expletive) we haven’t gone through in my whole career. Like I said, I try not to think about it too much. We’re out here winning and that’s the main thing that I care about.”
There’s not much time for Verdugo to flip a last-second switch, begging the question for how Yankees skipper Aaron Boone will utilize the eight-year veteran once crunch time arrives at New York’s front door and its postseason time.
