Red Sox trade Alex Verdugo to the Yankees in a four-player swap
The Red Sox made a big splash at the Winter Meetings on Tuesday night, trading outfielder Alex Verdugo to the Yankees in a four-player swap, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Boston will acquire three right-handed pitchers, Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert and Nicholas Judice in the deal.
Verdugo has been discussed as a trade candidate since the trade deadline last season. He has been linked to the Yankees in potential deals for right-hander Clarke Schmidt and second baseman Gleyber Torres.
“Obviously he’s a guy that other teams have kind of reached out on given the situation,” Craig Breslow said at the GM Meetings in Arizona in November. “But I don’t think we’re in a position to commit to anything. We have to look at every opportunity, every interaction with another club or with an agent as a chance to get better. Where that lands, we’ll see.”
Verdugo is entering the final year of his contract but is coming off a down year with the Red Sox. The Arizona native batted .264 with a .324 on-base percentage, .421 slugging percentage, .745 OPS, 13 homers, 37 doubles, five triples, 54 RBIs and 81 runs in 142 games (602 plate appearances) in 2023.
He is expected to earn around $9.2 million in arbitration for 2024, according to MLBTradeRumors.
Fitts, was the 2023 Eastern League Pitcher of the Year, posting an 11-5 record with a 3.48, 163 strikeouts in 27 starts for the Somerset Patriots. It was his first year at Double-A, earning 2023 Eastern League Post-Season All-Star honors and was named a 2023 Double-A All-Star by Baseball America, ranking second among Yankees pitching prospects in wins and third in strikeouts.
Judice, was selected by the Yankees in the eighth round of the 2023 First-Year Player Draft. The 6-foot-8 righty made 59 appearances (six starts) over four years at the University of Louisiana Monroe. After posting a 3.74 ERA (22 ER/53.0 IP) with 66 strikeouts and 15 walks as a senior in 2023, he made three starts for Yarmouth-Dennis in the Cape Cod Baseball League.
Weissert, posted a 4.05 ERA in 17 games over five stints with the Yankees this past season. He owned a 2.90 ERA with 58 strikeouts over 40 1/3 innings for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The right-hander allowed just two runs in 10.0 innings over his final seven games of 2023, all in the Majors from September 9-October 1.
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