{"id":56978,"date":"2025-05-23T08:24:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T08:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=56978"},"modified":"2025-05-23T08:24:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T08:24:23","slug":"braves-urged-to-pull-plug-on-yankees-castoff-alex-verdugo-as-stats-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=56978","title":{"rendered":"Braves Urged to ‘Pull Plug’ on Yankees Castoff Alex Verdugo as Stats Drop"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/main>When he was called up to the Atlanta Braves on April 17, it was a second chance on baseball life\u00a0for Alex Verdugo. After a frustrating year with the New York Yankees when\u00a0he was paid $9.2 million\u00a0for producing 13 home runs and\u00a0a .647 OPS, Verdugo had an even more frustrating free agency.<\/p>\n

The 2014 Los Angeles Dodgers second round draft pick\u00a0did not receive a single offer\u00a0from any team until the Atlanta Braves took a flyer on signing him for just $1.5 million with one week to go in spring training.<\/p>\n

As if that wasn’t enough of a slight for the eight-year veteran, the Braves required him to accept a minor league assignment \u2014 which he had a right to refuse, but did not.<\/p>\n

When he got the call from Atlanta, he did not disappoint. At first.<\/p>\n

In his first 10 games he\u00a0stroked 15 base hits, including five doubles, while striking out only three times, for an impressive .341 batting average and .850 OPS.<\/p>\n

But May has been a whole different story completely. Verdugo’s production at the plate has plunged, and\u00a0with 2023 National League MVP\u00a0Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. on the verge of coming back after\u00a0missing every game since\u00a0May 26, 2024, due to knee surgery, the Braves are now hearing calls to “pull the plug” on Verdugo’s Atlanta career.<\/p>\n

“While the Braves certainly didn’t expect Verdugo to be hitting a career-high pace, the hope was that he’d be a league average bat, which would be leagues above what they were getting. Instead, the left fielder has provided the team with mostly negative production,”\u00a0wrote Mitchell Barbee of the Fansided\u00a0House Hank Built site.<\/p>\n

“Since his last four-hit game, Verdugo has slashed .219\/.288\/.260, good for a 56 wRC+. This wRC+ places him as the 13th-worst qualified hitter in baseball since April 28,” Barbee continued.<\/p>\n

Put more simply, since the calendar turned to May, Verdugo has appeared in 17 games with just 13 hits and three doubles, for a .200 batting average and an anemic .500 OPS. He has not hit a home run in 30 games, going back to his final games with the Yankees last year.<\/p>\n

“There’s really no contest for Verdugo being the obvious choice to cut ties with in order to make way for Acu\u00f1a,” added\u00a0another Fansided Braves scribe, Cody Williams.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Acu\u00f1a on his rehab assignment has simply been outclassing his minor-league competition. Between the Rookie League level FCL Braves and Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers,\u00a0Acu\u00f1a has compiled a .400 batting average\u00a0and an astronomical 1.524 OPS.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a hot start with his new team, the Atlanta Braves, former New York Yankees outfielder Alex Verdugo has seen his production drop sharply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":56979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nBraves Urged to 'Pull Plug' on Yankees Castoff Alex Verdugo as Stats Drop - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=56978\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Braves Urged to 'Pull Plug' on Yankees Castoff Alex Verdugo as Stats Drop - 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