McAdam: Alex Verdugo uses his time wisely during shutdown

There are very, very few positives that have come from baseball's shutdown since mid-March. Better than five weeks of the 2020 regular season have been lost to the pandemic and while there's increased optimism that at least a portion of the season will be salvaged, there are still no guarantees.

If, however, baseball does resume at some point, the Red Sox will likely have the use of outfielder Alex Verdugo -- which most definitely would not have been the case had the season begun when it was supposed to on March 26.

Verdugo, the key played obtained from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the four-player trade that cost the Red Sox Mookie Betts, arrived in Fort Myers still dealing with a stress fracture of the lower back. But in the ensuing months, Verdugo has been able to fully rehabilitate the injury and is now ready to play.

"Physically, I'm 100 percent,'' said Verdugo on a conference call with reporters Monday. "I feel very good, just moving around with everything -- my swing, my throwing, running. I feel really good.''

The Red Sox' Fenway South training complex was closed for three weeks in April, but recently re-opened for major league players who are rehabbing. Verdugo, who has remained in the Fort Myers area, stayed active at his condo during the closure and has recently returned to the complex to continue his workouts.



"I still stayed active at home,'' he said. "I was hitting, throwing a little bit and working out, but obviously I didn't have the resources I do at the facility. When I got back into the complex, we took it slow again, kind of just ramped it back up, seeing how my body looked and felt to my trainers. From there, I feel like we're back on track.

"People are throwing to me in the cage, and then I'm taking BP. Now, the extra time has given me more time to get my endurance up.''

While speculation continues to focus on a potential start of the season in July, Verdugo has little doubt he'll be in the Opening Day lineup. Because he's had the facilities to continue working out, in a bit of irony, he could find himself ahead of teammates who had no physical concerns when the shutdown began.

"Whenever the season starts,'' he said, "I'll be ready. Whether that's soon or whether it's two months down the road, or whatever that might be...physically, I think I'm ready. I'm already 100 percent. What it would take the normal player (in a second spring training) is what it would take me, maybe even less now because I'm already doing everything. I'm staying on my hitting, my running, conditioning, throwing...I've been doing all of that. All I've been doing to it is just kind of adding to it.''

His readiness will also enable him to feel a part of the club. Had the season begun as scheduled, he likely would have spent time in extended spring training, then needed a minor league assignment before joining his teammates. Now, all of that won't be necessary.

'When we do ramp up, I'll be with the guys,'' he said. "I'll be going out on the field, stretching with them, doing all the drill work. When we were here for spring training, I was on a rehab program, kind of in the training room a lot. (But when we start back up), I think I'll be one of the guys, go out there, have fun, joke around with them in BP and shagging drills. I think that's something that's going to be fun.''

Verdugo has heard about various plans to re-start the season -- from remaining in spring training ballparks, to playing in regular season facilities. He's not sure how it will play out.

"For me personally, I'm about safety,'' he said. "I just want to make sure we're safe, we're playing it smart, we're doing the right things. But the athlete in me, the player in me, I want to play, I want to be out on the field.  That's where I love to be. I'm in it for whenever -- whenever's safe, whenever's smart. There's been a lot of rumors of different scenarios. Some of them seem a little bit extreme.

"I get that we want to play and I want to play as well. I just think we have to also be cautious with our players and we have to safe with the families involved...I want to make sure we're doing it for all the right reasons. I want to make sure this doesn't get worse and that we don't prolong this situation.''

Like many more established players who have voiced their objections to self-quarantining and remaining in a "baseball bubble,'' Verdugo believes that proposal would be untenable.

"Yeah, I think so for sure,'' he said. "The older players with wives and children and some people who just had babies with their spouses, too. It just doesn't seem logical to me to separate families like that or to make players quarantined. That's a little tough to kind of grasp. But I'm sure we're still working through those.''

Whatever plan is chosen, it's likely the season will get underway without fans being present. That, Verdugo believes, will present some challenges.

"We've dealt with it before,'' he said. "We've played in Arizona (Fall) League games with no fans, it's just the guys scrimmaging. We've done it all. I'm not opposed to it. It's just, as a player, I start thinking, 'OK, I get it, for maybe the first 30 games it's fine.' But what happens when the players are a little bit sore. It just gets repetitive. The fans bring that energy. The fans kind of add that extra adrenaline that kind of pushes you a little bit more. That's the only downside to not having fans.

"I like those connections. I like, when you make a play, when a pitcher strikes somebody out, or you hit something, I like to hear the cheering. You like to hear the boos. It's that instant feedback that kind of gives you that adrenaline or  makes you a little bit nervous and you feed off of that.''

There remains, however, the possibility that no plan is judged workable and the 2020 season is canceled entirely. In that scenario, Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong would remain property of the Red Sox, while Betts never plays a game for the Dodgers and leaves to go elsewhere via free agency.

"That would be pretty crazy, that would be pretty nuts,'' he said. "I really haven't thought about it much. It's a tough situation if that's the scenario for the Dodgers. But hey, that's part of life, right?. We can't expect these things. For the Dodgers, that's a tough deal. But everything happens for a reason.''