Red Sox: Don’t crown Alex Verdugo as the heir apparent just yet

Alex Verdugo makes his Red Sox debut

The Red Sox put on an offensive clinic on Opening Day Friday night, but that happiness would soon fade. The Orioles would storm back on Saturday afternoon and tune Boston’s pitching staff up for seven runs. It wasn’t all gloom and doom yesterday for the Sox though as we finally got to see Alex Verdugo make his Fenway Park debut.

The charismatic outfielder would get the starting nod over one of Friday night’s heroes, Kevin Pillar. I’m sure you all remember how Verdugo made his way to Boston, you know, as a piece in “The Trade.” As it stands right now it looks like he’ll be the right fielder of the future for the Red Sox, but it may be a bit too soon to name him the heir apparent to Mookie Betts.

Over the course of yesterday’s game, I saw something a bit shocking on social media. On more than one occasion I saw people ready to crown Verdugo as the next Red Sox great while also eulogizing Betts.

Mookie may not be lighting the world on fire yet in Los Angeles but his ceiling is still far higher than a majority of the league, he’ll figure it out. And to look at the flip-side of the coin, just because Dugie had a hot day in his debut, it doesn’t mean he’s the next Ted Williams.

I’ll admit that I was one of those out there that wasn’t the most thrilled with the return in the trade for Betts and David Price. There’s a definite promise, especially with Connor Wong and Jeter Downs, but Verdugo was the question mark.

I won’t delve into the potential character flaws that we’ve all heard and read about in the past, but they’re there, in some form. For me, I needed to see what he could do on the field and up until yesterday, it wasn’t much.

He came into spring training injured and was a non-factor in summer camp. So what exactly did Boston get from the Dodgers? Verdugo was quick to put on a show as he went 3-4 on the day with a trio of singles and a run scored. He showed some serious aggressiveness on the basepaths as well, which is something the Sox desperately need.

Ron Roenicke was more than happy with what he saw from his young outfielder both at the plate and while running the bases.

“It’s nice to see the type of player we think he’s going to be,” the manager said. “With the struggles in camp not swinging the bat well, even though the last couple days I thought he did have good swings, he started being inside the ball more, which is his game.”

One of the big factors in Boston’s dominance in 2018 was their aggressive nature while running the bases. Going first to third and stealing bags was something that felt commonplace, and it was something that was definitely missing in 2019. Verdugo showed that he’s more than capable of reading the ball off the bat as well as his defensive surroundings as he ran all over the Orioles.

Though it was a refreshing sight for Red Sox Nation, we still need to pump the breaks a tad and remember it’s just his first game. How will he fare when teams have him scouted and he’s unable to do some of these things? That’ll be the true test and his reaction is what I’ll be keeping my eye on personally.

We also need to remember he’s just 24 years old, and in his fourth year in the Majors. He set off some fireworks yesterday but we still have no idea if this is something that he can do on a nightly basis.

“At the plate, on the bases, first and third, reading dirt balls and all that, I played my normal game today,” he said. “I just went out there, relaxed, stuck within my approach, stayed within my element. You guys got a little glimpse of it today.”

He did show a bit of immaturity at a point in the game when he began arguing with the second base umpire. The right fielder had been talking with Carlos Febles during a pitching change and lost track of the moment, and had to be admonished to get back to second. A more seasoned player probably isn’t going to start a fight in an umpire in that scenario but it also shows a fire that he has. With more time in the league and experience, I think those situations will fall by the wayside but it is something we should keep an eye on.

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I’m not going to go out here and say that Alex won’t be a star for the Red Sox for the foreseeable future. The tangibles and even those weird intangibles we hear about are both there for the dynamic outfielder, but it’s still too early to tell. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles his shared playing time with Pillar as it looks as if Roenicke will alternate them based on the pitching matchup. Verdugo made it clear in both his play and his words on Saturday, he wants every chance he can get to prove himself.

“Do I want to be in the lineup? Do I want to be in there everyday? Did I want to be in there for Opening Day? Yes, I did,” Verdugo said. “But that wasn’t the case and really, I was ready to come off the bench at any point yesterday. You just have to know your role.”

It’s far too early to say that Alex Verdugo will be the replacement to Mookie Betts. Hell, I don’t think anyone is a replacement for Betts. At just 24 years old Verdugo shows the promise and potential to be one hell of a baseball player and may eventually evolve into a superstar. I think it may be too soon in his career to crown him as the next legend of Fenway Park, but he very well could be on the path to greatness.