Jonathan Papelbon trashes Alex Verdugo for implied shot at Alex Cora following trade from Red Sox to Yankees
The former Red Sox closer and NESN analyst cursed out Verdugo in a social media post on Friday.
Jonathan Papelbon is not a fan of Alex Verdugo’s comments criticizing the Red Sox and Alex Cora after he was traded to the Yankees, to say the least.
The former Red Sox closer, who is also an analyst for NESN, berated Verdugo on social media on Friday after the outfielder appeared to take a dig at Alex Cora as he praised Yankees manager Aaron Boone during his introductory press conference.
“Verdugo, I mean Vertigo, is a [expletive],” Papelbon wrote in a social media post. “Cora has his players’ and teammates’ backs more than anyone in the game. You aired yourself out by being late, lazy and unproductive. If I played for Cora, I’m drilling this [expletive], just saying.”
In the clip that Papelbon responded to, Verdugo said that he appreciates the way that Boone has “his players’ backs” instead of “airing people out.”
While Verudgo didn’t explicitly name Cora, it’s easy to see how that might have an implied shot at the Red Sox manager. Cora benched Verdugo multiples in the 2023 season for disciplinary reasons. First, he pulled Verdugo out of a game and sat him for another game in June for not hustling out a play on the basepaths.
Two months later, Cora benched Verdugo for a game again, reportedly sitting him after the outfielder arrived at the ballpark late. Cora explained it as a “manager’s decision” at the time, but also said it was “probably one of my worst days here in this organization” as he looked notably frustrated.
Following his benching in June, Verdugo said he and Cora were “cool” and had a strong relationship. He wasn’t asked specifically about Cora on Thursday, but Verdugo said he initially didn’t like getting traded to the Yankees.
“The genuine reaction was, you know, mad. I was hot,” Verdugo said. “I was like, ‘Man, they really sent me to the rivals, the Yankees,’ this, that. Then after about a day, I started sitting back, thinking, just reminiscing about how this year went with the Red Sox, kind of everything that was going on.”
As Verdugo reminisced on the 2023 season, he began to embrace playing for the Yankees, saying he wanted to disprove possible narratives about him.
“I shaved right away, just so I could feel like I’m in it,” Verdugo said. “I work out every day with a Yankee hat, to see how it looks on me, how it feels. Like I said before, [it’s a] fresh start and it feels good.
“I just want to go to the organization. I just want to work hard and I want to prove, maybe, a lot of ‘he said, she said’ things wrong. I want to just show them, we’re all people, man, we’re all human. Yeah, we make mistakes. But how do we learn from them and bounce back from them and how much stronger do we get from that. I’m excited for this new fresh start.”
Verdugo, 27, is entering his final season of team control. While he produced solid numbers at the plate, Verdugo had tough shoes to fill as the centerpiece in the return package for the Red Sox in the Mookie Betts trade. He slashed .281/.337/.428 over his four seasons in Boston, hitting 13 homers and 54 RBIs last season.
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