NEW YORK — On Friday night, Alex Verdugo will step in the batter’s box at Fenway Park as a visitor for the first time since July 2019. Seven months after the rare trade between rivals that sent him to the Bronx for three pitchers, the former Red Sox outfielder will get a chance to face his former team.
Verdugo, who has become something of a fan favorite while playing well in his first two-plus months as a Yankee, isn’t shying away from the fact that the series will be a meaningful one on a personal level.
“Part of me, I’m excited,” Verdugo said during a conversation at Yankee Stadium over the weekend. “That’s my favorite ballpark and still is, to this day. I love the atmosphere, I love the layout of it. I’ve got a lot of friends over there on that team, too. To be able to see them is going to be refreshing and nice to see them again. But I’m also excited to play. I know when the game’s on, it’s gonna be competing like no other. I remember it from that side, being with the Red Sox. I expect it to be the same way.
“I’m curious to see how the fans take it, how the first greeting is, I guess,” he added. “I’m open to whatever they do … It is gonna be a very personal series, just because I was with them for the last four years. But I’m excited about it.”
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Verdugo arrived in Boston with a significant amount of fanfare as the most established piece of the three-man package Boston got in the blockbuster trade that sent Mookie Betts and David Price to the Dodgers in Feb. 2020. The next four seasons brought plenty of twists and turns, including a strong shortened season in 2020, Verdugo playing a key role on the team’s surprise run to the 2021 ALCS, and then, inconsistency in 2022 and 2023 along with public clashes with manager Alex Cora — and multiple benchings (including one for arriving late to Fenway Park last August).
By the time the winter rolled around, it was clear Verdugo’s time in Boston had run its course and at the urging of Cora, new chief baseball officer Craig Breslow pulled the trigger on a bold move to move him to New York for righties Greg Weissert, Richard Fitts and Nicholas Judice during the Winter Meetings. The divorce had been a long time coming.
In previous interviews, Verdugo admitted he was initially angered by the trade, then, on a couple of occasions, took not-so-veiled shots at Cora’s managerial style. A third of his way into his first year with a Yankees team that enters Monday at 46-21, he seems looser, and overall, happier. Even though some time has elapsed, for Verdugo, describing his Red Sox tenure in just a few sentences is a complicated exercise.
“I really loved the organization,” Verdugo said. “I really loved wearing the Red Sox jersey and playing for my teammates. It was more of just wanting to be in a winning atmosphere. When we won in ‘21, that was one of the most fun years of my life and it’s because we had a winning team. We went to the ALCS. When you’re winning in Boston, those fans and everything, it feels special out there. 2021 was my favorite year. The other years were good but it just felt like we were fighting a little bit. We didn’t have the pieces that we needed. To not get them at the trade deadlines was a little bit tougher, too.”
Verdugo felt that former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom should have been more aggressive at the last two trade deadlines with the Red Sox on the fringes of contention. Bloom did little to improve the team at the deadline in each of those years but notably did not opt for a teardown in 2023 despite trying hard to move Verdugo ahead of the deadline.
“I think they were trying to play the long game or re-amp the minor leagues, get some new prospects in,” Verdugo said. “It would have been nice to see a little bit more initiative when I was there, just to try to force winning.
“But that organization is great. They’ve won for a long time and a lot of times. They have a process. They know what they’re doing.”
Verdugo’s relationship with Cora, who was not Boston’s manager during Verdugo’s first year with the club in 2020, came under the microscope last year. After Cora called out the outfielder on the final day of the 2022 season by saying he needed to improve in every aspect of the game, Verdugo entered that winter motivated. A great first half was marred by his first benching on June 8 after he didn’t hustle to Cora’s liking during a game in Cleveland.
Verdugo’s performance slipped in the second half and by the time Cora pulled him from the lineup hours before first pitch for a late arrival on Aug. 5, it was clear the manager’s patience had run out. Cora, who rarely has blasted players publicly in his six years as Boston’s manager, didn’t hold back when talking about how Verdugo had let the team down. Verdugo seemed to shoot back in late December when he said he was excited to play for Yankees manager Aaron Boone who, “instead of airing (players) out, (has) their backs.”
Despite previous comments, Verdugo insists that his relationship with Cora is not a negative one and that at least on his end, more has been made of a perceived feud than it should have been.
“I think it was overblown, for sure,” Verdugo said. “Everybody made it that, like, we can’t even be around each other. But really, he just wanted the best for me. We were grinding and going through some struggles. Sometimes, tempers flare when you’re not playing that good. It’s the kind of stuff that happens. Realistically, I’ve got nothing against him as a person, a father and a friend. We’re still all good in those regards.
Cora clearly felt taking the club’s issues with Verdugo, who caused frustrated team officials to question his preparation and unique pregame routine even before last year’s benchings, was required to get through to him. Verdugo wishes the manager kept things in house but doesn’t harbor any hard feelings now.
“It is what it is,” Verdugo said. “It’s his team. He chooses to manage however he wants, whatever he feels like is the right way. For me, maybe it wasn’t the right way but you’ve got to respect what he does.
“Looking back at it, I don’t want that little instance at the end of the year last year to be the salty, nasty taste of my four-year tenure with the Red Sox, because I really had a good time over there.”
The drama surrounding Verdugo was well-documented by reporters who cover the Red Sox in recent years and a semi-constant storyline in the months leading up to the trade. But the 28-year-old, who broke in with the Dodgers and is now playing in a third major market in New York, doesn’t think of any of the coverage as particularly unfair.
“Honestly, I haven’t minded any of the media anywhere I’ve been,” he said. “From the Dodgers to the Red Sox to here, you’re gonna have guys that have interesting takes or maybe spin your words around a little bit. But I don’t mind media. It is what it is. You’ve just got to be careful with the words you say so that way they can’t spin them. But I didn’t have a problem with really anybody.
“I’ve been blessed to play on arguably the three best teams in baseball. I’ve been very lucky with it. I’m just enjoying it, man. This is a dream come true, always. I’m at a point where I’m comfortable in my own skin.”
Verdugo had to shave his scraggly beard after joining the Yankees as well as make a wardrobe change as Boone has limited him to just one chain on the field. Not only does he look different, but he feels different as well. Verdugo’s numbers (a .261 average and .749 OPS) are similar to his final stats last year (.264, .745). But he seems to have more joy playing the game on a winning Yankees team. In April, he said New York provided him with “probably (his) favorite clubhouse (he had ever been in.” He spoke glowingly of his Yankees teammates who welcomed him in spring training.
“(It’s) all my teammates, man. All my guys around me and everybody,” Verdugo said when asked why the transition to the Yankees has been so seamless. “They’ve seen me play for a few years now and I’m not a rookie. They understand the person I am, the edge I brought when I competed against them between the lines. They respected that. When I came over here — (Aaron) Judge, (Giancarlo) Stanton, (Anthony) Rizzo, Gerrit (Cole) — all of these guys had open arms. You’ve got to break the ice a little bit but that ice broke fast.”
This weekend’s series, the first between the rivals in 2024, doesn’t carry as much weight in the standings as it has in the past with the third-place Red Sox entering Monday already trailing the Yankees by 12½ games in the East. But it will sure mean a lot to Verdugo, whose chip on his shoulder is bigger than ever.
“You obviously want to do good against the team that traded you,” he said. “But I’m going to try my best to level it out and just play baseball, not trying to put too much pressure on doing something. The good thing about having such an amazing lineup is that you can let other guys take the burden of it and make it a little easier.
“When you know you’re going to play them for the first time, you look forward to it. I’m ready to see those guys, play against them and be back in that atmosphere over there.”
