Boston media criticizing Yankees for Alex Verdugo trade with Red Sox is a joke

Are New York Yankees fans thrilled with the offseason Alex Verdugo trade? No! The former Boston Red Sox slugger has been arguably the worst hitter in the league for over two months. But that's our business.

Red Sox fans/media members thinking they can chime in at this juncture have absolutely no right. It's just their version of coping as Boston slips further and further out of the playoff picture as they squander opportunity after opportunity.

Let's hope we're laughing about that contract extension for Alex Cora come early next year because the 2024 season isn't exactly turning out to be that "masterclass" everyone in Beantown has been trying to hammer home.

Anyway, sure, one could say the trade has "taken a turn for the worse in New York," as NESN put it, but this has been a conversation for about six weeks now. Trying to revive it at this point is the definition of being late to the party.

Even if the Red Sox wanted to point and laugh at the move, they have no leg to stand on. Verdugo has positively smacked them around in 2024 when the two teams have met, and the Yankees are in first place in the AL East.

Boston media criticizing Yankees for Alex Verdugo trade with Red Sox is a joke

What are you criticizing? The fact you could never maximize the centerpiece of the Mookie Betts trade and he's only further proving that in a different setting? And that the new team he's playing for is your biggest rival and they are succeeding in spite of his lack of contributions?

Because there's no way to even dog the Yankees for the return they sent to Boston! Greg Weissert is a middling bullpen arm; Richard Fitts has a 4.47 ERA in 22 Triple-A games (21 starts); and Nicholas Judice has logged five innings in 2024. Is there a possibility the Yankees "regret" this in a year or two? Maybe. But the whole idea of the Verdugo trade was to improve the 2024 outlook. Brian Cashman wasn't concerned about 2025 or 2026, and he has pitchers further along in their development to take the place of those three.

Verdugo is what he is. It's possible the Yankees have finally realized that. Did it take them too long? Probably. But not nearly as long as it took the Red Sox, who sat around for three seasons waiting for the "Year of the Dugie." For New York, he'll be gone after 2024 and forgotten by July of 2025.