Forgotten Yankees nightmare resurfaces as Padres deliver unfortunate injury news

Whenever New York Yankees fans think about the team's 2024 World Series run, they cannot believe how many rostered players became irrelevant so fast. Actually ... they can. Because they asked questions all year about them.

Anthony Rizzo couldn't find work after that campaign. Jon Berti has appeared in just 51 games ever since. Marcus Stroman can't sign a contract. And we just learned Alex Verdugo will miss all of 2026 after undergoing shoulder surgery.

Verdugo was surely the most frustrating one of the bunch considering the Yankees freed the Red Sox of a problem, he was terrible offensively throughout 2024, and Trent Grisham wasted away on the bench.

This offseason, after appearing in 56 games with the Atlanta Braves last year, Verdugo signed a minor-league contract with the San Diego Padres. But he never appeared in a game with any of their affiliates apparently due to this ailment.

Former Yankees trade acquisition Alex Verdugo's career is at a crossroads

This could very well be the beginning of the end for Verdugo, who was also cut loose by the Braves last year when his play cratered yet again. He got off to a fast start, much to the frustration of Yankees fans, but then came crashing down.

It's mind-boggling to think Verdugo, who was a good young player and promising top prospect, was the centerpiece of the 2020 Mookie Betts trade between the Red Sox and Dodgers. It's nothing against him — it's more of an indictment on Boston's ownership and management for so poorly evaluating the Dodgers' farm system (and even thinking about trading Betts in the first place). The pressure Verdugo carried with him to appease the fanbase and organization after trading one of the best homegrown players of all time wasn't fair or realistic. He was put in the position to fail.

Verdugo turns 30 years old this week and will now be working his way back from major surgery, which is hardly an easy journey for somebody who was already looking to rediscover himself as a player. This is a guy who received MVP votes during the shortened 2020 campaign. That was the version of Verdugo the Yankees were hoping to get for a championship push.

Instead, they were just reminded of what could have been, as well as the rough lasting image of Verdugo swinging over a Walker Buehler curveball to complete their Game 5 collapse.

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