The market for Alex Verdugo is heating up, and the New York Yankees are conspicuously absent from the list of teams reported to be pursuing the free agent outfielder.
According to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com, who confirmed an earlier report by FanSided's Robert Murray, the Pittsburgh Pirates are "hot after" Verdugo.
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Cotillo also reports the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays are involved in the market for the 28-year-old outfielder, who became a free agent after the Yankees lost a five-game World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in October.
Pirates are indeed hot after Alex Verdugo and are a team to watch there, as @ByRobertMurray reported. Other teams like Mets, Jays involved, too.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) January 7, 2025Notably absent from the few teams reported to be interested in Verdugo: the Yankees, who sent three players to the Boston Red Sox in Dec. 2023 to acquire Verdugo in a rare trade between the rivals.
In what could likely be his only season in The Bronx, Verdugo was a shadow of his former self at the plate. He hit .233 with 13 home runs and 61 RBIs in 149 games, followed by an October in which he hit .208 with one home run and eight RBIs in 14 postseason games.
Verdugo was the final batter of the 2025 season; Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler struck him out to cap the Yankees' season-ending loss in Game 5 of the World Series.
It was a disappointing ending to a disappointing season for Verdugo, who hit xxx from 2017-23 with the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. Verdugo was one of three players Los Angeles sent to Boston in a Feb. 2020 trade for Mookie Betts, David Price, and cash.
The source of Verdugo's struggles? In August, he told NJ Advance Media that his hands were affected by a perplexing allergic reaction, which he traced to two chemicals found in his Franklin batting gloves. A quick fix was ostensibly just out of reach, however, and now Verdugo's time in pinstripes appears over.
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Pirates outfielders combined for a minuscule .227/.297/.362 slash line in 2024, among the worst in baseball. Moving Oneil Cruz from shortstop to center field at midseason should help inflate those numbers; a bounceback season from Verdugo, either in left field or right field, would help too.
The Blue Jays have been linked to free agent outfielder Anthony Santander, a switch-hitter. Nathan Lukes and Joey Loperfido, two left-handed hitting outfielders with less than a full season's experience, are currently penciled in as the Jays' starting center fielder and left fielder.
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The Mets are an unlikely suitor for Verdugo, if only because they are hitched to Juan Soto to a corner outfield position for the next 15 years. Soto's $765 million price tag perhaps makes them less willing to shift him to designated hitter duties in his first year in Queens. The Mets also appear set in left field and center field with Brandon Nimmo and Jose Siri, respectively, with veteran Tyrone Taylor a quality backup on the bench.
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