Braves Sign Alex Verdugo

1:13pm: The Braves announced the signing, confirmed the terms, and optioned Verdugo to Triple-A Gwinnett to begin the season. As a veteran with more than five years of MLB service, he had to consent to be optioned. He’ll head to minor league camp to begin ramping up and presumably spend at least a bit of time with Gwinnett before being summoned to the majors, which comes as little surprise given how close we are to the beginning of the 2025 campaign.

12:57pm: The Braves and outfielder Alex Verdugo have agreed to a deal worth $1.5MM, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s a one-year, major league deal for the MVP Sports Group client, per Brendan Kuty of The Athletic.

Just days ago, Verdugo told Kuty that he’d yet to receive a formal big league offer in free agency. That turned quickly. Whether he needs to begin the season in extended spring training remains to be seen, but it’d be a bit surprising to see him sign just a week (or less, depending on when the deal becomes official) prior to Opening Day and jump right onto the roster.

The 28-year-old Verdugo (29 in May) is coming off the worst season of his big league career but was a steady regular with the Dodgers and Red Sox from 2019-23. Over that five-year period, he slashed a combined .283/.338/.432 with quality corner outfield defense. He may not have developed into the star some had hoped when the former second-round pick was widely regarded as a top-100 prospect, but Verdugo was a clear contributor on generally competitive clubs.

The 2024 season started out with more of the same. Traded to the Yankees last offseason, Verdugo came out of the gate hot, batting .275/.362/.450 in his first 141 plate appearances. He fell into a deep slump from that point forth and never recovered, however. From mid-May through season’s end, Verdugo’s .221/.270/.330 line was one of the least-productive in all of baseball among qualified hitters.

Last year’s prolonged struggles surely hindered Verdugo’s market. He was connected to teams like the Pirates, Angels and Astros throughout the winter, but all of those clubs either went another direction in the outfield or didn’t end up making an outfield addition at all.

The Pirates reportedly “floated” a verbal number around $8MM when initially talking with him a couple months back, but no formal offer was ever presented. It’s not clear whether that’s because Verdugo didn’t find the price point amenable at the time or whether the Pirates instead decided it better to spread out their limited remaining resources across multiple players; they signed Tommy Pham ($4.05MM) and Andrew Heaney ($5.25MM) to one-year deals not long after being linked to Verdugo.

More to come.