Boston Red Sox

Papelbon goes off on Verdugo, defends Cora in passionate tweet

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Alex Verdugo seems pretty happy to be a member of the New York Yankees.

The Boston Red Sox traded him to their archrivals earlier this month in exchange for three pitchers.

In a post-trade conference call with reporters earlier this week, Verdugo talked about how excited he is to play for Yankees manager Aaron Boone. In doing so, he seemed to imply that Red Sox manager Alex Cora didn't have his back.

"I'm very, very excited to work with Aaron. I've seen the way he's had his players' backs," Verdugo said. "The one that sticks out to me is when he said 'These guys are savages," and he's yelling at the umpire. That's something I want to see out of my head coach, man. I want to see some fire, some fight for the guys. I think just instead of airing people out, have their backs. I'm really excited for this fresh start and just to kind of get with the guys and really just change the narrative, man. Just go out there, play hard, work hard and just have fun."

You might remember Verdugo was benched by Cora in June for not hustling on the basepaths. He showed up late to a game on Aug. 5 and was benched again. Verdugo didn't meet expectations at the plate, either, hitting .264 with 13 home runs, 54 RBI and 93 strikeouts in 140 games last season.

Ex-Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon saw these comments from Verdugo and was not happy, to say the least.

The fiery Papelbon isn't one to shy away from revealing his true feelings, and he let them be known in a post Friday morning on X that read, "Verdugo I mean Vertigo is a b----. 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 b----, just saying."

It'll be interesting to see the kind of reception Verdugo gets when the Yankees make their first appearance at Fenway Park next season, which is scheduled for June 14. We can probably expect Verdugo to get some boos from Red Sox fans in attendance.

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