Alex Verdugo throws shade at Purple Sox, Alex Cora in first feedback with Yankees

Purple Sox

“The real response was, you realize, mad. I used to be sizzling.”

There appears to be no love misplaced between Alex Verdugo and the Purple Sox.

Granted, the 27-year-old outfielder is now predisposed to dislike Boston — contemplating that he’ll don pinstripes through the upcoming 2024 season.

However after the Purple Sox opted to commerce Verdugo to the Yankees earlier this month, the outspoken Verdugo was candid about his transfer all the way down to the Bronx, in addition to the present state of his former workforce.

“The real response was, you realize, mad. I used to be sizzling,” Verdugo mentioned of getting traded throughout his first Zoom name with New York reporters on Thursday. “I used to be like, ‘Man, they actually despatched me to the rivals, the Yankees,’ this, that. Then after a couple of day, I began sitting again, pondering, simply reminiscing about how this 12 months went with the Purple Sox, type of every part that was happening… I shaved straight away, simply so I may really feel like I’m in it. I work out every single day with a Yankee hat, to see the way it appears to be like on me, the way it feels. Like I mentioned earlier than, contemporary begin and it feels good.

“I simply wish to go to the group. I simply wish to work arduous and I wish to show, perhaps, plenty of ‘he mentioned, she mentioned’ issues incorrect. I wish to simply present them, we’re all individuals, man, we’re all human. Yeah, we make errors. However how will we study from them and bounce again from them and the way a lot stronger will we get from that. I’m excited for this new contemporary begin.”

Arguably the highest return in Boston’s franchise-altering commerce that despatched Mookie Betts to the Dodgers in February 2020, Verdugo had his justifiable share of peaks and valleys with Boston.

Over 4 seasons with Boston, Verdugo batted .281/.338/.424 with a .761 OPS and 43 homers whereas additionally ending second within the 2023 AL Gold Glove voting amongst proper fielders.

However the Purple Sox struggled to place collectively a profitable workforce throughout Verdugo’s prolonged tenure right here, making the postseason simply as soon as over these 4 years.

“I assumed they have been in a rebuilding course of,” Verdugo mentioned of the Purple Sox, as transcribed by Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe. “I assumed Chaim Bloom did a very good job of rebuilding the farm system, getting guys in, and getting younger, contemporary individuals in. And I feel that’s ideally what the purpose was. I feel they used him [as a scapegoat] once they weren’t profitable to do away with him.”

Amid one other last-place end in 2023, Verdugo discovered himself in Alex Cora’s doghouse on a number of events.

Cora put Verdugo on the pine in early June for a scarcity of hustle and benched him once more in early August for allegedly displaying as much as the ballpark late.

After sitting Verdugo in August, Cora provided up one in every of his harshest postgame press conferences as a Purple Sox supervisor.

“I’m very disenchanted,” Cora mentioned, per Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe. “That is in all probability one in every of my worst days right here on this group. At this time we took a step again. I really feel accountable as a result of I’m the chief of this workforce… “At this time we took a step again as a workforce. We now have to ensure all people’s accessible each single day right here for us to get to wherever we’re going to go and that wasn’t the case.”

When talking of Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone and his protection of his gamers, Verdugo appeared to take a slight dig at Cora and his public criticism of the then-Sox outfielder final summer time.

“I’m very excited to work with Aaron,’’ Verdugo mentioned. “I’ve seen the best way he has his gamers’ backs. The one that actually [sticks out] to me is ‘these guys are savages!’ He’s yelling on the umpire. That’s one thing I wish to see out of my [manager], man. I wish to see some fireplace, some combat for the blokes. As a substitute of airing individuals out, have their backs.”

Verdugo and the Yankees received’t play the Purple Sox till June 14th subsequent season, with the longtime rivals scheduled to play 13 instances over the ultimate 4 months of the 2024 marketing campaign.