Former Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo spoke publicly for the primary time since being traded to the New York Yankees on Thursday night time, and whereas expressing his pleasure over attending to play for Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone, he took a swipe at his former Red Sox supervisor, Alex Cora.
“I’m very, very excited to work with Aaron,” Verdugo stated. “I’ve seen the way he has his players’ backs. The one that really gets out to me is he’s like ‘these guys are savages and he’s yelling at the umpire.’ That’s something I want to see out of my head coach, I want to see some fire and fight of the guys, and instead of airing people out have their backs.”
Verdugo is probably going referring to the quite a few occasions he was known as out publicly by Cora throughout his tenure in Boston. During the 2022 year-end press convention Cora singled out Verdugo as a participant he needed to see extra out of, and this previous yr Verdugo was twice benched as a consequence of lack of effort. The first incident got here in Cleveland after Cora felt Verdugo wasn’t working the bases arduous, and the latter got here in August when Verdugo reported late to a day sport at Fenway.
Following the commerce, Cora described his time managing Verdugo as a studying expertise however wished his former outfielder effectively. He added that Verdugo was stunned when he heard he was going to the Yankees, and Verdugo corroborated that he was initially upset.
“The genuine reaction was, you know, mad. I was hot. I was like man they really just sent me to the rivals, to the Yankees, this and that,” Verdugo stated. “Then after a couple of day I began sitting again, I began considering, simply reminiscing about how this yr went with the Red Sox, every little thing that was happening, after which guys began reaching out, Judge, Stanton, Gerrit, Rizzo, these guys all began reaching out and welcoming me to the staff.
“That got me excited, I shaved right away just so I could feel like I’m in it,” he continued. “I work out every day in a Yankees hat, I’ve got it right here to see how it looks on me, how it feels. Like I said before, it’s a fresh start and it feels good.”
Verdugo is coming off a season by which he was a Gold Glove finalist at proper area and batted .264 with 13 house runs and a .745 OPS. He will now slot into what needs to be amongst baseball’s finest outfields, lining up with perennial All-Stars Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.
And as for being on the opposite aspect of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, Verdugo acknowledged will probably be an adjustment however he’s excited to nonetheless be part of it.
“It’s a little bit of a switch up but I’m excited to bring that same energy towards the Red Sox now,” Verdugo stated.
Source: www.bostonherald.com