{"id":600683,"date":"2026-03-02T00:04:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T00:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/600683\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T00:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T00:04:29","slug":"padres-sign-alex-verdugo-to-minor-league-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/600683\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres Sign Alex Verdugo To Minor League Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Padres have signed outfielder Alex Verdugo<\/a> to a minor league contract, the San Diego Union-Tribune\u2019s Kevin Acee<\/a> reports.\u00a0 Verdugo has been a free agent since he was released by the Braves last July.<\/p>\n

Last offseason, Verdugo didn\u2019t land his Atlanta contract (a one-year, $1.5MM guaranteed deal) until just a week before Opening Day.\u00a0 He\u2019ll get a little more Spring Training prep time this year, and a chance to try and win himself a job on San Diego\u2019s roster as a backup outfielder.<\/p>\n

Verdugo must also be viewing this as an opportunity to turn around his career as he enters his age-30 season.\u00a0 Formerly an everyday player with the Red Sox and a key piece of the trade package Boston received from the Dodgers in the Mookie Betts<\/a> deal, Verdugo posted okay but unspectacular numbers (.281\/.338\/.424 with 43 home runs in 2071 plate appearances, for a 105 wRC+) over five seasons in a Sox uniform.<\/p>\n

Over the last two seasons with the Yankees and Braves, however, Verdugo\u2019s production has sharply dropped.\u00a0 Since Opening Day 2024, Verdugo has a modest 80 wRC+, while hitting .234\/.292\/.339 with 13 home runs over 834 PA.\u00a0 In each of those seasons, Verdugo got off to a hot start before badly tailing off.<\/p>\n

Those struggles in the Bronx led to Verdugo\u2019s extended stay in free agency last winter, and it took some injuries within the Braves\u2019 outfield mix to allow him to land a Major League contract.\u00a0 Jurickson Profar<\/a>\u2018s PED suspension came a little over a week after Verdugo\u2019s signing, which suddenly created the possibility of an everyday role as Atlanta\u2019s left fielder.\u00a0 Verdugo voluntarily spent the first few weeks of the regular season at extended Spring Training and in the minors to get himself in proper game condition, but once called up to the Show, he hit .239\/.296\/.289 over 213 PA.<\/p>\n

Once Profar was eligible for reinstatement, the Braves designated Verdugo for assignment and then released him.\u00a0 No other minor league offers emerged over the remainder of the 2025 season, and there hasn\u2019t been any buzz about Verdugo on the offseason rumor mill until today\u2019s signing.\u00a0 However, the Padres have apparently long had Verdugo on their radar \u2014 Acee writes that San Diego had some trade talks involving Verdugo in the past, and explored signing him last winter.<\/p>\n

Fernando Tatis Jr.<\/a>, Jackson Merrill<\/a>, and Ramon Laureano<\/a> are set as the Padres\u2019 starting outfield.\u00a0 Miguel Andujar<\/a> will also get some time in the corners, and Gavin Sheets<\/a> and Nick Castellanos<\/a> are technically also outfield options but the Padres will likely deploy both at first base and at DH.\u00a0 Bryce Johnson<\/a> is a fourth-outfielder type who hasn\u2019t shown much at the plate over parts of four MLB seasons, and the Padres plan to give Sung Mun Song<\/a> some time in the outfield as they experiment with turning Song into a super-utility type in the majors.<\/p>\n

The left-handed hitting Verdugo could spell Laureano (a righty swinger) against some right-handed pitchers, and he has more of a career track record as a hitter than Johnson, though Verdugo is best suited defensively as a corner outfielder.\u00a0 Since the Padres don\u2019t have a set designated hitter, the team can rotate any number of players through the DH spot in order to give partial rest days to regulars and to help get at-bats for the bench crew.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no risk for the Padres in seeing what Verdugo can do in camp, and the team has been stockpiling a lot of experienced MLB players as they evaluate their bench options.\u00a0 Ty France<\/a>, Pablo Reyes<\/a>, Jose Miranda<\/a>, Nick Solak<\/a>, and more are in camp on minor league deals battling it out for 26-man roster spots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Padres have signed outfielder Alex Verdugo to a minor league contract, the San Diego Union-Tribune\u2019s Kevin Acee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1413,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-600683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-alex-verdugo","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116156659544254671","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}