The New York Yankees made a historic trade on Tuesday, but not the ones their fans have been waiting for.
The Yankees acquired outfielder Alex Verdugo from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for right-handed pitchers Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert and Nicholas Judice, the team announced Tuesday.
The New York Yankees today announced that they have acquired OF Alex Verdugo from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for RHP Greg Weissert, RHP Richard Fitts and RHP Nicholas Judice.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) December 6, 2023
Fitts is the Yankees’ No. 12 prospect on MLB Pipeline, while Judice, the team’s eighth-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, isn’t ranked in the team’s top 30. Weissert made his MLB debut in 2022 and holds a 4.60 ERA in the big leagues.
The trade is a rare deal between the two sides of MLB’s premier rivalry. Going off MLB.com’s count, it is only the eighth Yankees-Red Sox trade in MLB’s divisional era (since 1969). The pace has picked up recently though, as this is also the third time the teams have made a trade 2021.
The last Yankees-Red Sox trade came in January of this year, an exchange of Diego Hernandez and Greg Allen. The Yankees also sent Frank Herman and Adam Ottavino to Boston in 2021.
Verdguo has mostly been a popular player in Boston in his four years with the team, alternating between average and above-average at the plate while serving as a boisterous clubhouse presence. He remains most notable among Red Sox fans as the crown jewel of the team’s return from the Mookie Betts trade, which obviously hasn’t worked out for the team, but Verdugo isn’t the one primarily at fault for that.
What does this mean for the Yankees and Juan Soto?
The bigger question is what the arrival of Verdugo means for the Yankees, who at last glance were engaged in the bidding for San Diego Padres outfielder Juan Soto.
Soto is the premier trade candidate in this year’s offseason between his pending free agency and the Padres reportedly looking to reduce payroll. The Yankees loomed as an obvious fit, but Verdugo could be seen as a way to cover the corner outfield hole opposite Aaron Judge that Soto supposed to fill.
There apparently still isn’t much of a conflict for the Yankees, though, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman and The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty all report the team very much remains in the Soto race. If New York does pull that trade off, Heyman says the plan is presumably for Judge to play center field, where he has experience.
On the other hand, the Yankees might not love their 32-year-old, $360 million man playing a more demanding position when he sustained a significant toe injury in 2023.
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Daniel Miller is a sports fanatic who lives and breathes athletics. His coverage spans from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis for sports enthusiasts.
