Nick

Alex Verdugo’s spiral at plate remains a concerning Yankees trend Per New York Post BALTIMORE — Alex Verdugo was a key part of a thriving Yankee offense for the first six weeks of the regular season, with an .812 OPS until May 9. But since then, the left fielder, who was brought in from Boston in the offseason to provide some much-needed balance to a righty-heavy lineup in The Bronx, has mostly struggled. In his previous 58 games prior to Saturday’s 6-1 win against the Orioles at Camden Yards, Verdugo had just a .606 OPS. Aaron Boone said Verdugo was “grinding, but I do feel like he’s doing a good job competing through that and know that he has that faith and confidence as a hitter that he’s gonna get it rolling.” That’s one of the reasons the Yankees put Verdugo back at the top of the lineup Saturday in what’s seemed recently like a perpetual search for a leadoff hitter to get on in front of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. But recent history shows Verdugo might not be on the verge of turning his season around, despite Boone’s words of encouragement. Verdugo’s production at the plate has slipped in each of his three-plus months as a Yankee. After putting up an OPS of .804 by the end of April, Verdugo’s OPS in May was just .687 before it fell to .589 for the month of June. And in the middle of July, Verdugo entered Saturday with a .563 OPS for the month. In some ways, Verdugo’s drop off is reminiscent of his season a year ago with the Red Sox, when he had an OPS of .856 in his first 72 games, but beginning in late June, he had a .620 OPS over his final 70 games of the season. And Boone added Verdugo’s history as a solid contact hitter should help him get out of his funk. “He’s in the prime of his career,’’ Boone said. “That should show itself over time.” The numbers, though, tell a slightly different story. Verdugo is on track to put up some of the worst numbers of his career — including OPS and OPS-plus and his on-base percentage, down again, has dropped every year since 2021. Yep, Verdugo's OPS is .675 compared to Abreu's at .805. He's a punk and that's all I got to say about him.

It's time to add major piece or two. We're knocking at the door. We have Kutter for 4 additional years, Tanner for 3 additional years and Bello for 5 + 1 years. Giolito more than likely will have 2 years on his contract assuming he's off to a slow start (in terms innings pitched in 2025) With the return of Casas and Story, our lineup is solid with one exception and that's a big right handed bat. I'm confident we'll piece together the bullpen. We'll see how good Liam is, the management thinks he can be the closer next year. Whitlock hopefully will return as a 'Martin' type set up guy unless they give him one more shot at starting. Go Henry.

You sell mainly to acquire young talent with CHANCE of a high ceiling guy. We ain't getting that with what we have to sell. At best we may get an Abreu type. But we don't need that type any longer. We have plethora of young guys. As Moon would say we got to the window of winning seasons sooner than what we thought. It's time for JH to push the chips. It's time to go all in. We're close. And our window in wide open for few years.

There is just no reason at this point trading Jansen. We need him. His salary is baked in. Not to mention what a PR nightmare it would be. Go get a starter better than Criswell.

My point was I am happy with our catching situation. Our primary catcher right now bats right handed. AND Moon has more good news in that he hits righties just as well if not better. I was concerned with plethora of left handed bats at other 8 positions projecting into 2025. righties, Rafaela (CF) and Story (2B) lefties, Yoshida (DH), Casas (1B), Devers (3B), Duran (LF), Mayer (SS) and Abreu/Anthony (RF). Do we trade either Anthony or Mayer to get a young, team controlled (3+ years) starting pitcher to balance out the lineup? And do this at the trade deadline? Or, just getting rid of Yoshida and bring in a righty bat or resign O'Neill as a DH sufficient to balance out the line up (4 righties and 5 lefties) and retain our 3 prospects?

But if you are going to carry two catchers as every team does, it's good to have a left handed bat. Also have a catcher that can DH, I think both Wong and Teel can.

Cora is playing as many right handed bats as possible tonight vs A's lefty starter. We have our Big 3 prospects in Portland. I can see Keel platooning with Wong. If Mayer ends up short, we will have 3 of 4 infielders batting left. If Anthony is better than Abreu then I can see him eventually getting traded. Especially now that Duran is a fixture in the outfield. That's 5 out of six non catching positions with left handed batters. There is no way we can keep Yoshida as our DH. That makes 6 out of seven lefties. Would it be wise therefore to trade Mayer? At some point we need better balance offensively.

That was a stupid cobtract that Padres gave. I would be pissed if I'm a fan.

"I gave the team good chamce to win." Is Bello that naive?

Per Bres no decision yet on addition(s). I'm not optimistic

Sox not the only team struggling with starting pitching. Yankees starters were 35-13 after first 72 games. They lead the majors with the lowest ERA. But during their 5-15 tailspin, the starters are 3-13. Everyone needs starting pitching.

Why do you constantly talk about this? Yes it would be great had we not done the deal. What if if if if. Geeze live in the real world! You can't do anything?about it. Focus on making?the team better. I predict this thread will be 100+ pages.

I think we were expecting Bello to pitch at Luxury Tax Payroll level. In reality he is pitching to his annual W-2 wages. He will get better and keep up with his cash wages.

If you have Verizon make sure your IP address is fixed and not in "static" mode.

I like Hamilton over Valdez. At some point, Grissom will get another opportunity. I doubt the team sends down Romy. Who goes when Grissom is ready?

I heard management state that the fans should come to Fenway for the whole experience, not just to see the team win.

I agree. Pitching, pitching and more pitching is needed. Yesterday, we went ahead 4-3 and had no ammo left due to taxing the pen the prior two games. Yeah, game then got out of hand. Greg Weissert is falling off the cliff.

Ok great mystery solved, almost. I live in Indiana. My MLB package is useless for Cubs, Reds and White Sox games. I am used to it. But couple of weeks ago Sox games on the West cost were blacked out to my dismay. When I called the MLB.TV customer service, it had something to do with my internet provider. So I was at Verizon this am on another matter and I happened to ask about my blackout problem. The guy knew immediately. He said that my service does not use static IP address. It's changing constantly. So some games are randomly blacked out. But apparenly MLB.TV uses my address to blackout the aforementioned 3 teams. I also finally have ESPN. Sometime I go to a bar and spend $40 to watch Sunday night ESPN games so I consider the added cost a push. Ok I feel better. Not too many people understand my problems.

I am pretty sure I have seen Romy play right field. It was due to Cora using every player on the roster. My point was it is nice to have someone fill in for 7 positions.

Romy is turning into our deluxe utility guy. I am assuming he can play anywhere but catching

Valdez gets sent down when Grissom returns. He is too careless with his defense.

Yanks will be forced to sign Soto. Big $$$.

I turned off the TV after Devers grounded to pitcher. Boy did I have fun waking up about an hour go. One thing I do after we beat the Yankees is to go read the New York post. They can be brutal at times. Now I can go back to sleep. Life is good.

It's a good thing YNkees picked up Soto. Their offense would have been horrendous without him. How can they NOT sign him when he becomes a FA?

In mlb, can a dtarting pitcher play another position then return to the mound later?