Alex Verdugo has had a rollercoaster of a season for the Boston Red Sox. He started out hot, went through a rut in July, and was even benched last month for a lack of hustle.
Verdugo has one more year of arbitration before becoming a free agent, and the outfielder has yet to have any contract talks with the Sox. However, he was spotted having a lengthy conversation with Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom after last Wednesday’s game.
Verdugo talked about his contract status and clarified what that conversation was about with WEEI’s Rob Bradford on Audacy’s original podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” this week.
“I try not to worry about that. It’s going to happen,” Verdugo said (5:10 in player above). “We’ve waited this long and I only have one more year of arbitration before I’m a free agent. So I think next year will be a big thing. We’ll see what happens at the trade deadline. There are a lot of variables that are up for next year.“
While some are speculating about his contract, Verdugo is going to keep doing what he can to control what he can control.
“For me, I’m just going to be proud and happy wearing the Red Sox uniform as long as I can,” he continued. “Hopefully, that time’s not coming to an end soon.”
Verdugo then cleared the air about his conversation with Bloom last week.
“That was more of a personal catch-up. We weren’t talking business or anything like that,” he said. “It was just catching up, seeing how everybody’s doing, family, and stuff like that…
“Somebody saw and posted about it but it was family day, I was there, and he just wanted to ask me about some things with my family. It was nothing crazy.”
Verdugo is batting .278 with 13 home runs and 53 runs batted in through 124 games this season. His next home run will set a career-high for the outfielder.