When Red Sox manager Alex Cora was asked last week for one player he was really hoping would take a step forward in 2023, it didn’t take him very long to give an answer: Alex Verdugo.
Next May, Verdugo will turn 27, the age long considered to be the prime age for hitters in baseball. In the eyes of some, he still hasn’t lived up to his potential.
As Cora said last week: “He’s getting to that area in his career of who he’s going to be.”
MLB Trade Rumors released its annual salary arbitration projections for 2023 on Monday and for Verdugo, who will be entering his second year of arbitration and will have just one more before he’s eligible for free agency, it’s a big number: $6.9 million.
He’s no longer a young player on a salary close to the league minimum, but instead will now take up a decent chunk of change.
So who is he? Because if Verdugo is going to just be another mediocre defensive outfielder who hits .280 with 11 home runs, $6.9 million a year is the high end of what he’ll be worth.
Verdugo needs to get better.
“We talked about this with (Andrew Benintendi) a few years ago,” Cora said. “And you see the player he has become. He has become a better defender, a good hitter, and I think Verdugo has a chance to hit for power, hit for average, but he can impact the game running the bases and playing defense.
“We’re going to push him hard this offseason to get back to play faster, to play quicker. I think athletic-wise, he can do that.”
The Red Sox have seen two very different versions of Verdugo in the three years since they acquired him from the Dodgers along with Jeter Downs and Connor Wong for Mookie Betts.
There’s the 2020 version of Verdugo, who played fast, who caused havoc when he got on base, who had a .367 on-base percentage as the leadoff hitter, who played with a lot of energy and who was one of the best defensive outfielders in the game.
And there’s the ‘21 and ‘22 versions of Verdugo, who started putting the ball in the air, got a heavier dose of off-speed pitches, didn’t do much with them, and looked like a much slower player at the plate, on the bases and on defense.
In just 53 games in ‘20, Verdugo was worth 1.9 WAR and ranked as one of the most valuable players in the game. In 198 games since, he’s been worth a combined 3.3 WAR.
What happened? The easy answer is that Verdugo has struggled to stay healthy.
He felt healthy early this season, when he started the year hitting .313 through the first two weeks. He told the Herald it was the first time he had felt fully healthy in Boston, and he was hoping to utilize his speed more than he had in previous years.
A month later, Verdugo collided with Bogaerts in a nasty collision that seemed to have impacted both of their seasons.
Cora was asked last week why he thought Verdugo looked a lot slower this year and the manager actually pointed to a different injury.
“He was a little bit banged up,” Cora said. “Early on, he fouled off a ball in the opening series here against Minnesota so he was banged up a little bit.
“Also, he put on some weight, not in a bad way. He got bigger, kind of like the same narrative that happened with Benny in ’19, kind of like, get bigger to hit for extra base-hits. It cost him in other aspects of the game.”
But Cora also said he’s tired of using injuries as an excuse. Verdugo will need to learn to keep himself healthy over a long season, especially in ’23, when he plans on playing for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic in March.
“With him playing for Mexico, his offseason stuff is going to be different,” Cora said. “He’s going to be in even better shape going into spring training. This is a guy, we envision him to be an impact player not only in the batter’s box, but on the other side.”
There’s no question Verdugo hasn’t looked the same on defense over the last couple of years. He was an elite defender in ‘20, when he led the league with seven outfield assists in just 54 games. He seemed to take naturally to the tricky confindes of right field at Fenway Park, where he routinely made spectacular plays.
He’s been less impactful in left field, and while Verdugo moved back to right field after the Sox released Jackie Bradley Jr., Cora said roster construction will dictate where he plays next year.
Kiké Hernandez is on the roster and could play anywhere on the diamond. Otherwise, the Sox have no guarantees in the outfield and will clearly need to find a big bat somewhere on the field, preferably at a corner outfield spot.
One way or another, the Sox need Verdugo to take a big step up in ‘23.
