Alex Verdugo Expresses Frustration Over All-Star Snub
Every year we seem to have the same conversation at the start of July.
Who was snubbed for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and who should they have replaced on the roster?
For Boston Red Sox fans this year, the answer seems obvious.
Alex Verdugo has been having a career season in Boston. After manager Alex Cora somewhat called him out heading into the offseason, Dugie came into 2023 ready to roll. He was seemingly in the best shape of his playing career and hopeful to prove the doubters outside and inside the organization wrong.
So far this season Verdugo is hitting .288 with a .809 OPS and a 117 OPS+. He ranks third among all American League outfielders in defensive runs saved (11), only trailing Toronto Blue Jays' Kevin Kiermaier and Daulton Varsho.
It's worth adding that he has been responsible for most of the team's clutch hits this season. With two outs and runners in scoring position this year, Verdugo is hitting .367 with 11 RBIs and a .972 OPS. His go-ahead home run in the series finale in Toronto on Sunday was just one of many big hits for the 27-year-old so far this year.
I was fully ready for all of this to lead to Verdugo's first career All-Star selection. But the reserve selection show has come and gone and the replacements have been named...and Dugie didn't make the cut.
Did that piss him off? "Yeah," Verdugo told Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe. “I mean, but it’s not even just in my regards. I just feel like it’s a fan popularity contest. And, like, the person who went in shouldn’t be there.”
The person Dugie is referencing is likely Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez.
The majorly hyped 22-year-old is having an ok season, but it's hard to make any case that he's been better than Verdugo this year.
Rodríguez is hitting .251 with a .730 OPS. While his power numbers are ahead of Verdugo, this feels more like a selection favoring the hometown hero over anything else.
An interesting part of the reserve voting for the All-Star Game is that it's now decided by MLB players and the Commissioner's Office. It makes me wonder whether Verdugo has potentially rubbed some other players around the league the wrong way during his seven-year career. I'd personally hate if that prevented him from being sent to Seattle for this year's All-Star festivities.
Verdugo has good reason to be pissed that he isn't an All-Star based solely on his on-field performance, but there is no doubt in my mind that he is also thinking about how this could impact his inevitable contract extension discussions with the Red Sox.
Even though Alex Cora said Verdugo deserves to be an All-Star, I wonder how much him missing the team could prevent some extra money going his way when negotiations potentially begin this offseason.
Dugie is an All-Star in my book. For whatever that's worth.
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