Alex Verdugo played in the 2024 World Series for the New York Yankees. Two years later, and 460 days since his last MLB game, the outfielder remains a free agent with no team, no contract and no major league appearance since July 1, 2025.
Verdugo is 30 years old, and he has not retired. No club in Mexico, Japan or Korea has reported signing him either, which leaves one question: how does a World Series regular wind up with nowhere to play?
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The Dodgers drafted Verdugo in the second round in 2014 and gave him his big league debut on September 1, 2017. He moved to the Boston Red Sox in the Mookie Betts trade before the 2020 season, and put together five straight seasons of average or better offense for those two clubs from 2019 through 2023, according to MLB Trade Rumors .
Boston used him as its everyday left fielder for four seasons. His best year there came in 2021, when he hit .289 with 13 home runs and 63 RBI in 146 games, according to the Covers.com player page .
New York acquired him in December 2023 for Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert and Nicholas Judice . In 2024, Verdugo hit .233 with 13 home runs and 61 RBI in 149 games, Covers.com shows. He went 10-for-48 in the postseason as the Yankees lost the World Series to the Dodgers.
Verdugo had expected a trade that winter, though not to an AL East club.
"Looking back at it now, it's the best thing that has happened to me," Verdugo said, as quoted by MLB.com . He made the comment during the season, while describing a clubhouse where he felt free to be himself.
He elected free agency on October 31, 2024. No club offered a guaranteed big league deal that winter, and on March 20, 2025, the Atlanta Braves signed him for one year and $1.5 million, according to MLB Trade Rumors .
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Verdugo agreed to open 2025 in Triple-A and reached Atlanta on April 17. By early July he was done. Atlanta designated him for assignment on July 2 and released him on July 5, after a .239/.296/.289 line with no home runs and 12 RBI in 56 games, the worst of his career. He signed nowhere else that year.
The San Diego Padres gave him a minor league contract in March 2026. Verdugo played two spring training games, going 1-for-6 with a walk, before a sore throwing shoulder kept him in Arizona.
The Padres released him on May 11 after the injury was expected to require season-ending surgery. He never played a game at any level for the organization. "He did not appear in any games for any affiliate," Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote.
RotoWire lists his estimated return as February 1, 2027, according to the RotoWire . Even a full recovery by 2027 would leave nearly two years between regular-season appearances, as MLB Trade Rumors noted.
As of Sunday, 460 days have passed since his last major league game and 146 since the Padres cut him. His career line stands at .270/.326/.406 with 70 home runs and 328 RBI, according to the Baseball-Reference career page . No team has made the next move.
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