The New York Yankees landed Alex Verdugo in the 2023-24 offseason with the hope of the veteran being an ideal veteran player. While Verdugo was loved for his attitude and fierce competitive nature, his offensive production wasn’t what the Yankees needed.
For Verdugo as a player, his year was less than ideal. The left-handed hitting outfielder is on the free agency market this winter, and his value is lower than ever.
He should find a team, whether a contender or rebuilding team, looking for fire in the clubhouse, but Ryan Garcia of Empire Sports Media predicted that it won’t be with the Yankees.
“While an excellent defensive left fielder, Alex Verdugo simply didn’t live up to the back of his baseball card during the 2024 season. He set a career-low in wRC+ (83) and OBP (.291) as he slumped hard in the month of June and had it carry throughout the rest of the season.
“The Yankees already have Jasson Dominguez waiting in the wings and Trent Grisham under contract for 2025, so the need for Verdugo is essentially non-existent. To spend any financial capital on him when you could likely use that money to deepen the bullpen or the bench would be quite redundant,” Garcia wrote on November 8.
Verdugo Wants to Return to Yankees
There’s value in having a guy players love in the locker room, so a reunion with Verdugo shouldn’t be counted out until he signs with a team other than the New York Yankees.
He came to the Yankees with questions about his character, but those were quickly put to rest.
Verdugo, who played his best baseball with the Boston Red Sox, enjoyed his time with the Yankees and said he wanted to return.
“I just really started thinking about it right now,” Verdugo said about his free agency, according to Max Goodman of NJ.com. “We’ve got some things to think about. I definitely want to be back in pinstripes to help us win one,”
The left-fielder understands free agency is a business, adding that it wasn’t the year he wanted to have.
“Maybe one day we can come back, if it’s not next year, maybe it’s another year,” Verdugo said before Game 5 of the World Series. “But I would like to come back and just show the type of player that I really am. I think we’ve seen it defensively, seen it at times offensively, but I’m usually a lot more consistent.”
Verdugo Should Play Better in the Future
Compared to his showings since 2019, last season was the worst performance of Verdugo’s career. He finished with a .233/.291/.356 slash line and 83 OPS+.
The New York Yankees could look at his career numbers rather than one bad year. The 28-year-old owns a career slash line of .272/.328/.414 with a 101 OPS+, which is much better than he showed.
Yankees skipper Aaron Boone acknowledged that Verdugo is a better hitter than what they got, so the front office could consider that in free agency.
“I think at the end of the day, he’s a really good hitter,” Boone said.
“He’s a born hitter. On balance, we’ll look at this year and look at the numbers, a little bit of a down year by his standards, but his guy can hit. It’s baseball. Sometimes great, good, mediocre, you’re going to struggle. Every year is a little bit different. He had a stretch where he struggled a little bit, but he can hit. I feel like he’s had a lot of big at-bats for us here in the postseason and continued the outstanding defense.”
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