Yankees' Alex Verdugo happy to join club, but he was 'mad' about it at first
Alex Verdugo celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the first inning during a game between the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on August 24, 2023 in Houston. Credit: Getty Images/Logan Riely
Alex Verdugo will bring a lot of baggage with him from Boston when he makes his Yankees debut in 2024.
There’s his 2021 feud with Yankees fans, which resulted in Verdugo getting hit in the back by a ball and the fan who threw it getting banned from all MLB stadiums for life. There’s Verdugo’s 2023 feud with Red Sox manager Alex Cora, which resulted in Verdugo getting benched for showing up late.
There’s his signature beard and his preferred uniform No. 99. Both of those are already gone as the outfielder gears up to join No. 99-holder Aaron Judge and new acquisition Juan Soto in the Yankees outfield next season after the Dec. 5 trade that sent Verdugo from Beantown to the Bronx.
A clean-shaven Verdugo addressed all those issues and more in a Zoom news conference with New York reporters on Thursday.
But for Verdugo and Yankees manager Aaron Boone (who made a separate appearance on Thursday), there’s really only one issue: How will the lefthanded hitter perform in pinstripes?
“I think he can really hit and i think he can really defend, especially at the corners,” Boone said. “I don’t necessarily think he’s reached his potential. Hopefully this environment for him and entering the last year before free agency, there’s a lot of carrots out there. We just want to get him settled, get him comfortable, and I feel like he’s a guy you can envision hitting anywhere in the lineup. I feel like as solid as he’s been, feel maybe there’s more in there, too.”
Said Verdugo: “It's one of those things, man, it's nice to hear. But it's also like, as a player and an athlete, it being about me, it's I want to tap into it, right? I want it to be now. I want to reach that potential.”
When you boil down the 27-year-old Verdugo’s offensive numbers into one stat, you get OPS-plus. The league average is 100. In 2023, Verdugo’s OPS-plus was 100. Average.
Verdugo was the centerpiece for the Red Sox when they traded Mookie Betts to the Dodgers before the 2020 season. Even though he sounded ready to leave Boston, Verdugo said his first reaction when he heard he had been traded to the Yankees was not positive.
“The genuine reaction was, you know, mad,” he said. “I was hot. I was just like, ‘Man, they really sent me to the rivals, the Yankees?’ ”
Verdugo said he calmed down after “about a day” and after he started hearing from Judge and Anthony Rizzo and other Yankees veterans. Now he’s excited.
“I shaved right away just so I can feel like I'm in it,” he said. “I work out every day in the Yankees hat.”
And how does Verdugo feel like he will get along with Yankees fans, with whom he was not shy about exchanging non-pleasantries in the outfield as visitor?
“I know it's going to be a little weird for some people,” he said. “But hopefully some of the highlights can happen with the Yankees and you kind of just start winning over the crowd. But I'm not really too worried about that stuff.”
With Erik Boland
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
