Ex-Yankees $9.2 Million Outfielder’s ‘Sad’ Message as Free Agency Gets No Takers

In 2019, outfielder Alex Verdugo was rated as the No. 1 prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system. In 2020, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox as a piece of the mega-deal that brought former American League MVP Mookie Betts to the Dodgers. In 2021, he belted 13 home runs and 32 doubles along with what the Red Sox site “Over the Monster” called “countless clutch hits” as he helped the underdog Red Sox win 92 games and make it to the AL Championship Series.

And then, after the 2023 season in which he had repeated run-ins with Boston manager Alex Cora over a perceived lack of effort, the Red Sox had seen enough. They traded him to their arch-rivals, the New York Yankees, that winter.

But even though Yankees skipper Aaron Boone played Verdugo in 149 games and then in all 14 of the Bronx Bombers’ postseason games, his lone year in New York was a serious disappointment.

“From May 1 through the end of the regular season, Alex Verdugo ranked 133rd out of 136 qualified position players with a 72 WRC+. He was tied for 131st out of 136 qualified position players with -0.1 fWAR,” wrote Zachary Roman of Fansided. “Simply put, for five of the six months of the regular season, he was performing like one of the worst position players in the sport.”

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WRC+ is “weighted runs created plus,” a measure used to evaluate a hitter’s run production in which the MLB average is always 100. And fWAR is the Wins Above Replacement formula used by the analytical site Fangraphs. The bottom line with both of those numbers is that Verdugo was a poor offensive player last year.

So perhaps it is no surprise that once he became a free agent, Verdugo would find no takers — at least not yet, three weeks into spring training. But Verdugo is going out of his way to put a brave face on the situation, posting a message to his Instagram account saying simply, “IN DUE TIME,” alongside a highlight reel of his career with the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers.

“Alex Verdugo’s attempt to find a home in free agency is just getting sad,” wrote another Fansided scribe, Austin Owens, after seeing Vertigo’s post. “It is very likely that Verdugo does not land on a big-league roster before Opening Day and very well could have to settle for signing a minor League contract and focus on working his way back to the majors.”

The New York Post also characterized Verdugo’s free agency as “sad,” in a story about the Instagram post. But Post writer Matt Ehalt sounded at least a small note of optimism for Verdugo, writing that “injuries and underperformance” by players already on a big league roster could lead another organization to give the 28-year-old a try before opening day, which is now just over three weeks away.

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