The Braves have designated outfielder Alex Verdugo for assignment, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Verdugo’s spot on the roster will go to fellow outfielder Jurickson Profar, who will be reinstated from the restricted list after serving an 80-game PED ban.
Verdugo, 29, signed a one-year, $1.5MM contract with Atlanta late in the offseason. He first filled a reserve role behind Jarred Kelenic but wound up thrust into a more prominent role when Kelenic’s prolonged struggles to hit big league pitching saw him optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett. Verdugo raced out to a hot start with the Braves, hitting .322/.385/.441 in his first 65 plate appearances, but his production has cratered since that time. Dating back to May 6, Verdugo has registered an anemic .203/.257/.225 batting line (37 wRC+) in 148 turns at the plate.
This year’s run with the Braves largely mirrors Verdugo’s 2024 with the Yankees. His early hot streak in New York lasted longer than his hot streak in Atlanta, but his struggles as a Yankee were also more protracted. Verdugo has now tallied 834 plate appearances across the past two seasons and generated a dismal .234/.292/.339 batting line. That’s a far cry from his 2019-23 form, when he batted .283/.338/.432 and served as a solid regular in the outfield corners for the Dodgers and Red Sox.
Even Verdugo’s once-excellent defensive grades have deteriorated in recent years. Defensive Runs Saved still gave him a slightly positive mark (+1) in 426 innings this season, but that’s nowhere near his 2019-24 levels, when he garnered a gaudy +31 mark in 6150 innings. Statcast’s Outs Above Average pegged Verdugo as a scratch defender in 2024 but has him at minus-5 in 2025. Verdugo’s sprint speed used to rank well above average but is now in the 21st percentile of big leaguers, which has obviously cut into his range in left field.
The Braves can trade or place Verdugo on outright waivers at any point in the next five days, although given his guaranteed salary and lack of production, the likeliest outcome will be a release. If and when he clears release waivers, any other club could sign Verdugo and owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the major league roster. That sum would be subtracted from what Atlanta owes him, but the Braves will remain on the hook for the vast majority of his 2025 salary.
Another great Yankeeography
Does anyone believe in stats like defensive runs saved or outs above average? In citing those for Verdugo, are we supposed to think they form part of the reason for his release? If so, why, when no evidence is given to support that inference.
Yes
I don’t think Verdugo will be known as a Yankee. He’ll forever be remembered for the following:
Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and Conner Wong for Mookie Betts and David Price.
I still can’t type that without laughing.
Another over-hyped Dodger player who brought back a generational talent. The Dodgers are good at this and the teams that trade with them are not. The list of failed recent “top” Dodger prospects is mighty long.
Don’t forget about that trade where LAD basically paid $250 mil for Beckett, Punto, Gonzalez and Crawford AND got a ring to show for it. Oh wait…
That was new ownership jump starting the major league team while getting the farm system in order.
Seems to have worked out.
Regardless of his, “overhype” who’s to blame, the Redsox for agreeing to it. Don’t hate the Dodgers because the, Redsox settled. They could have gotten way more for, Mookie. But they settled. That’s on the, Redsox management
His career has never been the same since he went on paternity leave in late April last year.
Having a baby is tough. Some say you never fully recover from it.
King – So his ankles swelled up? That explains, in part, the lack of stolen bases I guess.
Dude……
let – I was gonna go with stretch marks …. great minds ;O)
Cards – I wouldn’t expect you to get his joke. LOL!!!
Is a return to the Bronx expected once he clears wavers? Supposedly, Judge loved having him as a teammate.
No. There’s no room for him and he can’t help the team.
ctyank: Only pay a small part of his salary? Struggled at the plate? Sounds like White Sox material to me.
He can’t help any ML team. He’ll end up in Japan or Korea.
If he were still a Dodger, he would probably be a top 10 outfielder, like most of their players who are magically good when they put on the uniform.
he wasn’t that good, just young with potential
Speaking of the Dodgers if the Braves hadn’t messed around for as long as they did we may have been able to send Sale to them for Alex Freeland to kick off the rebuild
But hey I guess we’ll have to settle for Nick Allen long term. Such a well executed organization!
The absolute denial of AA to even consider selling should be a fire-able offense.
TradeAcuna: If Verdugo was still a Dodger, he would be leading the voting for the All-Star game. 🤣
Good riddance. Not 1 HR. Mercy
Don’t hide Nick Allen’s glove.
Means he’s due
Due to be DFA’d (Verdugo, not Allen).
Verdugo used the sham of a 2020 season to appear better than he was. Take away that year and he would have been out of the league altogether 2 years ago. Or at the very least relegated to minor league deals and maybe a bench spot with a good Spring Training. He’s just not that good.
hiflew – Verdugo is basically Rafaela, except a better career hitter and not as good a defender …. and an identical IQ.
This guy fell way off the cliff. It is surprising how some player lose it in an instant.
To be fair to Vergudo, he’s never really had *it* with a career 99 wRC+ and is better suited as a fourth outfielder.
I still have nightmares & wake up screaming from his time in the Bronx. Ahahahahahaha!
Well….bye.
DFA’s for a PED user, how the might have fallen.
AJ Preller…DO NOT answer his call!!!
“Hi, this is AJ”
“Preller, it’s Doogy!”
“‘s answering service, please leave a message…”
*click*
Padres could use him. Why not?
Hey, Joel the Troll makes his usual conflicting opinion post, color me surprised!
Under .300 OBP, poor D and 68 OPS+ dictate that the Pads could in fact NOT use him, thank you very much… and goodbye for the day, KOC.
If/when the Pads procure a new LFer, it will be a substantially different direction and caliber.
Who’s starting in left for the Padres? I will hang up and listen…..
116 OPS+ Gavin Sheets. Ta-ta!
Dude can’t play defense. And you need a DH.
And we like you better when you hang up and listen.
🙂
Who is we? You and the voice inside your head?
Well, I’m not going to name names… so we’ll just keep it purposefully vague and say “this website’s users”!
Goodbye Joel! 👋
Stay classy San Diego
I genuinely wonder how a player like Verdugo goes from above average to league average to below replacement this early, this fast, no real major injuries or mechanical changes to explain it.
Body restrictions/limitations, eyesight, instinct, luck (good or bad), drive/willpower…
That last factor was recently highlighted by Chicken Strip. He alluded to Verdugo and Romo as bad clubhouse guys.
The Betts trade has gotten bigger as the years go on, with LA has continuing its ascent as Boston continuing its decline.
Are you talking about Strippling?
There are 20 million reasons to explain it. He will be Bling-Happy for the rest of his life.. Now he can go home to his mansion in the hood, wear his hat sideways, and say “Yo’ a lot.
All those Pirates fans who were convinced we would have been better off having Verdugo than Pham–you still want him?
Dude could not hit for average, nor power, nor run, nor play defense. The only thing that increased was his body weight.
That’s the idiotic feminine jewelry he wears along with the beer belly.
Nice name tesseract. He actually, surprisingly, seemed decent enough defensively. I say it’s surprising because he is very slow. But I guess it’s like how Acuna seems pretty slow on RF. A lot of it’s the jumps. But I have not looked at Verdugo’s metrics.
His necklace count increased as well to be fair.
one of the worst across the board metrics ive ever seen to be on an MLB roster this long. Guy fell off in every single facet of the game.
His OPS+ histogram looks somewhat normal, not quite symmetrical.
My favorite part about this is reading everyone talk about how terrible Verdugo is and seeing those same people talk about how their team needs to go get Luis Robert Jr.
From 2020-2023 Roberts had a 125 OPS+. Per 162 games he played at a 5.8 bWAR pace with 33 HR’s and 37 2b’s and 20 SB’s. That is big production especially out of CF.
Wow…is Robert’s your brother in law…to “project” production from a guy who cratered in the 24 season and is doing the same so far in the 35 season after a decent 23 season is like saying if the Titanic didn’t hit that iceberg they would have set a record for the time to cross the Atlantic……at least:Dog” shows up to play pretty much every game and isn’t a chronic IL guy like Roberts…
Soon to be playing Banana Ball
I wouldnt be so sure they would even want him
Verdugo certainly wasn’t the answer, but the Braves have no left handed bench bat when Baldwin is behind the plate. Expect AA will search for one.
The single wimpiest swing in the game. An absolutely atrocious hitter. This is the most overdue and life affirming news from the Bravos this season. On a team full of atrocious, underperforming hitting he is by far the worst player. And the worst part is that sub 300 OBP and SLG was leading off most games.
That “wimpiest ” swing was the toughest out when he was on the RedSox….
I agree.I would love to see the Sox sign him to a minor league contract.Maybe he regains or maybe not.Nothing lost either way.It does make that yankee trade look horrendous though.Fitts and Weissert being big players for the Sox with their injuries.
Plus we had a throw in which i haven’t looked up but this could be like our Betts trade.The Yankees got squat.
I can see the tools there. He has good at bats in terms of swing selection. I would say his approach is very good but there is something very off when he actually swings. He lets the ball travel very deep which I actually like but (and I can’t explain this well as I’m not well versed in hitting terms) he seems like his arms and hips/legs are not in sync. Like all his weight is on his back leg and never transfers to his front at all. He is swinging all arms and sort of cuts all his power off because he doesn’t involve his lower half correctly to clear his hips and get his hands in the right position. I can’t explain it well but I hit similar to him and had the same problem. It could be because the middle of his body appears out of shape.
Cheap option for the Pads, motivation to beat the Dodgers.
Couldn’t be worse than the lf situation currently.
If, that is, MLB stops giving the Padres a dead ball.
I said it and will say
it again.
The Phillies will sweep the Padres with the use of the dead ball and mandated “Padres Strike Zone” and the Padres “inferior” market size.
It’s a formula folks.
Large markets trump small markets in MLB.
Given how Abel was squeezed really badly on three of his five walks and should have been out of that big inning, your theory was just blown to smithereens
Abel might not be that good.
@steroids – Too early to tell either way. The last leap is the biggest one and most players go through periods of struggle. Check back in a season or two.
This!
I am just grateful I am not sitting in the swamp weather to watch this fiasco today.
Conspiracy much? You sound pretty ridiculous.
towin is our Padre resident tinfoil-hat-the-sky-is-falling-empty-peanut-bag-for-a-noggin poster. Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave.
Take out two 4 games with weak singles mostly and he was, in a third of the teams games this year, by far the worst hitter in the game. If you ground out to second and short every at bat you are bound to sneak them through occasionally.
This guy was once a headline piece in the Mookie Betts trade. Now, he can’t even hold a job as a backup in the league. This trade is already a nightmare for us Sox fans, but every day it gets worse.
Hey, at least Connor Wong got an RBI, right?
Will Kelenic play in the MLB ever again?
213 PA and 0 HRs? Wow, that’s an insane drop from a previously decent player. May be done.
The Braves are really striking out on all these leftover left fielders. Just brutal options at every turn.
Verdugo needs a trip to Asia or the Mexican Baseball League at this point. He’s actually doing worse this year than with the Yankees…
I wonder if his tattoo allergy situation still affects his offense. His hands hurt and other parts of his body did as well from the tattoos.
At this point, I just hope he *really, really* likes his tattoos… by all appearances, they would seem to have derailed his career.
So he’s not able to tattoo any more balls?
Goodbye Kepler
AA might as well rip the band-aid off and sell off all of the spare parts. Ozuna, Inglesias, Johnson. Sell whatever pieces make sense and gear up for 2026. Move Waldrep into the pen, Trade murphy in the offseason, retool the bullpen and farm(future trade pieces). team needs a wake up call in the worst way, this is just a continuation from 2024 and AA sees that. It would be a total failure to stand pat or add at the deadline.
Astros are said to be looking for a LH hitter, at the very least Verdugo is left handed…
I take Verdugo´s $1.5 M vs Conforto´s $17 M any day.
I don’t want Verdugo on the Dodgers under any circumstances.
Would love for the Dodgers to sign him to a minor league contract, get him right, and trade him for another major piece again.