On Wednesday night, the New York Yankees got blown out by the Texas Rangers (TEX 10, NYY 6) and lost for the sixth time in their last eight games. Trent Grisham's ninth-inning grand slam makes the game appear closer than it really was. The Yankees were down 5-0 in the fourth inning and trailed 10-2 heading into the ninth.
Left fielder Alex Verdugo, who is staying in the lineup over top prospect Jasson Domínguez, went 1 for 3 in Wednesday's game, which improved his season batting line to .235/.293/.359. This has not been the free-agent year Verdugo expected nor what the Yankees envisioned when they acquired him from the rival Boston Red Sox in the offseason.
In the fifth inning, Verdugo rolled over on a ground ball to second base, then casually jogged down to first. Here's the play, which prompted commentary from the YES Network broadcast team:
Run it out they say pic.twitter.com/iO3U6eAMDb
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 5, 2024
If you've watched Verdugo play for any length of time, you know this is the norm. Red Sox manager Alex Cora benched Verdugo multiple times because he failed to hustle. Jogging out the ground ball Wednesday is nothing that hasn't happened all season. After the game, Yankees manager Aaron Boone defended Verdugo, saying he is "playing his ass off."
"He's OK. He's beat up. He's playing his ass off," Boone said (via the New York Post). "He picks his spots to where, when he needs to, he beats out the force play, beats out a double play, gets the infield hit. Sometimes I wish it would look a little better on certain ones but when he hits the one-hopper to the second baseman and he's got it, I get the look. But I don't have any issue with how hard he's playing the game."
Verdugo told reporters that he's "fine" when asked about Boone saying he's "beat up." To be fair, baseball players tend to say they're fine even when they're not fine. It's September. No one is 100% this time of year.
Earlier this year, Boone benched Gleyber Torres when he jogged out of the box on what he thought was a home run, then had to settle for a single when it banged off the wall. "I just felt like in that moment, I felt like I needed to do that," Boone said about pulling Torres from the game. Boone is willing to bench players who don't hustle, though Verdugo jogs out ground balls with impunity.
For the Yankees, the issue isn't that Verdugo jogs out ground balls. It's that he's one of the least productive outfielders in baseball. He has an 83 OPS+ and is a 0.8 WAR player. Among the 26 outfielders with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, Verdugo is 25th in OPS and 23rd in WAR. He should be benched for reasons beyond jogging out grounders.
Wednesday's loss dropped the Yankees to 80-60 on the season. They are 40-41 in their last 81 games. Despite that, they are only one game behind the Baltimore Orioles in the loss column in the AL East. Playing Domínguez over the unproductive Verdugo could be something that pushes the Yankees ahead of the O's, but New York is so far unwilling to try it.
