Red Sox All-Access: Alex Verdugo | First Year in Boston

[Music] there's a lot of unwritten rules in baseball and i feel like the last couple years we've kind of seen it he caught the ball the ronald the cunhas the sodos the you know all these guys coming up being a little bit loud with their antics keep playing like this he's going to become a fan favorite i like it let the kids play can't be soft in this game that's really it that's that's it [Music] this was not a day that the boston red sox wanted to happen we saw with the big news in baseball boston red sox have sent mookie bets the 27 year old star outfielder again agreeing to a 12-year extension with the los angeles dodgers the centerpiece of this deal for the sox is outfield prospect alex verdugo [Music] 2019 the end of it to 2020 was you know it was tough uh me getting injured you know going through the getting traded we didn't know if we were gonna really get this whole year in all this stuff i came in i had something to prove i trusted my training staff and everybody with the boston red sox i mean you know obviously mookie betts is a is one heck of a player and and you know it's just an honor to to really be in into that type of trade for for a player like you know bets and price but you know with that being said you know it's it's part of the business it's part of the game uh you know it's just it is what it is and and really that doesn't that doesn't add any pressure on me it doesn't add anything like that at the end of the day i'm gonna go out there i'm gonna i'm gonna play the hardest i play at play with the the passion and love that i have and and really uh you know i know my numbers at the end of the day will will be good and and i know i can play and i'm confident with my ability i know what i can do on the baseball field i'm extremely confident in my abilities with everything defensively in the batter's box base running i know that i'm i can be a game changer and and you know i plan on being an all-star having you know gold gloves silver sluggers i plan on that like obviously everybody has goals everybody wants that and um yeah for me that that's what helps me is is truly being confident in my abilities and knowing that you know everywhere i've gone even throughout the minors to to the dodgers and working my way up uh with you know sporadic playing time to you know finally getting playing time it's a it's something that i've always just told people like hey like you guys are going to see it like that's that's it because at the end of the day in between the lines all that matters is you competing against that person and i don't care if you're you're jacob degrom garrett cole if you're if you're cy young winner is the best like that that's what that's what feeds that's what feeds people like me you know i mean it's that it's that competitive edge that wanting to be the best like these guys are known as the best pitchers the best players so you know obviously you want to go there you want to play and show them what you got hey what's up red sox fans uh we're out here at photo day you know just enjoying it little behind the scenes look people make it work that's right there we're having a time of our lives my man's right there yeah let's go check me out [Music] is i supposed to look at the camera looking right at this camera thank god i was mean [Music] like you said uh boston up here they are a little bit you know they speak their mind a little bit more that's what it is and that's i i like that man i like it i really do it's just there's no holding back for them you know people get mad about obviously trades or or if you're not performing like they speak their mind and they say it and hey that's the nature of the game we're in that business we're we're in the public eye you're people are gonna have mixed emotions mixed feelings about you like some people are gonna love you and some people will just look at you and not like you and that that's just how it is but i'm gonna let my play talk you know i'm gonna let my play talk i'm gonna get healthy i'm gonna go out there and and just just play my heart out play give it everything i got and i think at the end of the day um boston will will accept that and and and i think they'll see they'll see what they got as a good player i don't know if a lot of people know us but growing up my my favorite team was actually boston red sox though i was a big fan of david ortiz big fan of boston so uh to actually be here now to meet the meet the staff meet the players and and to be with the organization it's it's amazing i mean they welcome me with open arms and uh you know this is this is really like a family here alex tutor the major league player you admire so you model your game after david ortiz david ortiz i'm telling you i see david ortiz here i'm i'm giving the biggest hug i might even tear up man like hey kid what's going on you know you see him doing stuff special you see him tearing up the yankees and now like obviously i'm with boston now i want to do it you know what i mean now i want to go and do it you know they got me healthy and good enough to go this year so keep bringing it every day keep finding that mindset keep finding that that positive thing and my thing was you know if i keep balling out keep playing hard whatever happens happens but at least at the end of the day you can you can sit back and just say hey man i let it all out there [Music] what was my first thought like first stepping into fenway this year probably one how much i love the ballpark uh just like even right now just taking a look at it and and just you know seeing the monsters seeing the 420 seeing the pesky pull it's something i grew up watching i grew up watching david ortiz play a lot a lot of guys play it's just something that you know i'm lucky to have every day that one's ripped way deep to right field watch this one sail that ball is gone into the second tank when he lets it fly and he makes contact he has got a healthy cut we've seen it i personally miss the fans yes because whether you're having a good game bad game there's always going to be someone right there for instant feedback come on babe everybody be careful i got a hot mic hot mic [Music] those never get easier [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh it's a great day to have a great day here we go [Applause] i feel like my chains are going to be too loud for anybody to hear this but it's all good all right guys we're going to try not to yell today we're going to try to be cool calm collective think twice before we do anything tell you what it is weird playing with no fans no fans it's definitely harder to get amped up at least i would have people to talk to now i got nobody i mean i got jackie but he's far sorry i got nobody guys i got nobody nobody knows i don't know you guys know this but i got the lefty james harden put him right here and then slide on back go ahead and hit him one more time but you hit that ball over here i'm gonna have to eat it up all right nice little ground ball they'll play get us right out come on gotta think positive got things closer come on come on only fitting he hit it to me though so you're saying i gotta swing less hard cause if i would have stayed through that one that just was too far i should have never swung at it but i was already committed but it did make me feel better like hey i can get that [Music] i just got to be disciplined now [Music] how are you doing today good what's going on bobby everything good [Applause] what's going on pete good brother yourself hey congrats on the derby bro every time i see you you're hitting the bus i appreciate you man i don't got that kind of power mess i got to be that average guy the first time i watched you play every time you touched the ball it was either double or not was it in oklahoma yeah oklahoma city i remember when you first came up i was there for two years man i had to get used to it [Applause] no chance we get it papi you mucho nasty but tranquilo against [Applause] [Music] i've always been someone who's who's played and you know with passion and high energy and all this stuff so when i feel like you know i'm not showing all my emotions i feel like i'm kind of going through the motions in in that sense like for me like if i gotta if i gotta get a little angry or get a little excited it's what gets me going it's what wakes me up high fly ball that one driven deep to right field back into the corner and that ball makes the second deck alex verdugo with the blast [Music] i think for sure my biggest shining day was the two home runs he'll go after that one and drive that one high it's deep to left and that ball's gone this ball is crushed this ball goes into the seats easily that ball is hammered that's a high fly ball twisting deep deep deep god berdugo strikes again a blast deeper than the first one also to the opposite field and the robbing of the home run you know against toronto this is a high fly ball driven deep to right gradual back to the pen leaps up he caught it he caught the ball he took it back oh boy good night what a night [Applause] oh is he loving that he's doing everything right now hitting home runs playing a little defense gets back to the wall braces himself times his lead and pulls it back in and is he loving that play i'm not gonna lie i went big fly off for the national car rental and just to be able to absolutely know you freaking hit one oppo to pimp it like that like that's crazy and i was locked in i was not trying to get too big with myself i had some pitches to hit away and i drove him the other way and you know on defense made it made a nice play to kind of keep us in the ball game so we want to do good we want to have those games we want to have multi you know homer uh games all that stuff and reality of it it's hard it's a hard league hard hard place to play but anytime we can do it you got to celebrate it a little bit [Music] into left field for the monster and off the wall by suzuki i don't think it's hard figuring it out you know i mean i got a good understanding of uh where i am on the field where the you know where everything is happening as the play is uh unfolding you know like if there's a ball off the wall i have a good idea of the way that it came in what trajectory it's going to bounce off to you know where the bases are when i'm facing this way so i can turn and still be able to fire when it's a second instead of in the pesky pulse i never really felt like it was that much trouble you know even with even with out there you get there's a couple balls that you know that are hit that are once in a freaking blue moon that hit off the ladder or or hit off you know something weird out there and take a crazy hop but i don't play for those ones i play for the you know the majority of it and i just go from there oh geez we're back [Music] i'm just lucky you know i'm lucky that i was able i look back at it and you know during the times of everything that happens you know during the times of the trade or times of uh you know things that really don't go the way you want you you kind of get you get into this weird feeling like oh like why me like why does this have to happen to me like why is this like whatever but looking back on it everything playing out the way it did it's like i was blessed man i was lucky to get drafted with the dodgers and go up with them and have that have that upcoming with them and then you know to come over here and start playing with the boston and it's like another amazing you know rich uh rich franchise just you know a lot of past time a lot of memories and it's just to go from two of the best teams in the league you know that have been been like this for years it's it's fun it's special and like i said it's it's cool it's just can't wait for us to start playing and you know playing the ball that i know that we can play out here we'll go right in this corner oh god this this sharpie has seen better days so out here we had a lot of unwritten rules in baseball you know you can't really swing 3-0 like that you know when you when you're up by a lot of runs you can't really you can't really do certain things you know you can't take it you can't take an extra base you can't do stuff like that so it's just you know the last couple years we've kind of seen it with you know just the ronald and the cunhas the sodos the you know all these guys coming up being a little bit loud with their antics and um you know some people i think it will always rub some people the wrong way but you know for the most part uh i like it so it adds a flare adds uh adds a type of excitement you know that i feel like kids younger fans younger generations will will kind of gravitate towards and like i feel like that's why they like football and basketball so much you see so many um you know raw emotions i like to kind of take my game as you know if i do do something special i don't i don't try to necessarily show up people you know i try to do something out of excitement and it's not really to disrespect anybody but hey man it's let the kids play you know what i mean let them play and if you're that soft you know it can't be soft in this game that's really it that's that's it at some point next year i'm hitting one up here right here go ahead take a look from home plate i know it's far and i know i'm skinny guys don't mock it it's coming it's going down i'm not my stay oh shot can you hit it all over there off of hoo that's really where he hit it hey so what happens if i hit one farther do i get like do i get like a red seat or do you have to be like ted williams all right i'm gonna have to hit my push-ups tonight then [Music] meanwhile we have breaking news just into our newsroom from the world of major league baseball the boston red sox have rehired former manager alex cora cora was manager when the red sox won their last world championship he's a great teacher he's great at communicating with players great at implementing analytics which hein bloom and the red sox are very big on and he's great with the media for all those reasons above i think core is the right man for the job have you had a chance to speak with alex verdugo and what excited you most watching him play and what excites you most thinking about managing him i actually talked to him on friday uh it was a great conversation looking forward to work with him on a daily basis uh what i saw is a guy that uh you know whenever all this stuff you know goes away and we get a packed house in fenway he's already a fan favorite watching him on tv imagine coming here and see him play on a daily basis he brings it every day he shows emotion which i'm okay with it he cares and uh he can be so much better too you know there's a lot of things that he can do i'm going to put him in the spot to to become one of the best players in the league and uh hopefully i can help with that one thing i'll follow up being around it maybe you have you've had in 2018 you had superstars on that team there are still superstars on this team but i've said for a couple years the red sox seemed to be a collection of quiet humble superstars which is a great thing yeah but you need a little bit of fire once in a while and boy berdugo brings that every night doesn't it yeah he's uh he's different than you know the the group that we had in 18 and 19. he's louder which is not bad and as long as you post every day you prepare yourself it is what it is you know you saw it in the playoffs you know a lot of loud characters right and people enjoy it and i believe that when when this thing happens again because it will happen you know like everybody will come here and things are closer or normal you know they're gonna have a blast watching and play he's a good player complete player and it's just a matter of keep him healthy and let him do his thing out there [Music] my first one was my wrist both of my wrists faith and loyalty yeah i mean honestly i went in and i wanted to get my whole like arm done and the guy was like like i didn't know they had to like you know go in at first get it all lit and like i thought it was just gonna happen you know they just got the picture got it when i when he did it and like i felt like nothing i was like oh i'm getting two arm sleeves like i knew i yeah i knew i knew right then and there [Music] i'd say fashion i definitely took it way more serious probably like a year two years ago base my outfit like off my shoes it might be weird but you know i have i'll get a new pair of whatever it is jays blancy's giuseppe's louis vuittons i'll get a bunch of different things and and then i'll kind of start working my outfit around that and it's like you know boom boom will go up i think my my uh fashion game is gonna it's gonna take a big it's gonna take a big uh up step probably next year or two uh shoes all together i probably got like 50 60 pairs for me my off season is gonna be i'm going home to tucson i'm gonna go relax see my family haven't seen them since january so i'll go see them hang out with them probably spend a couple weeks out there and then if i can get in contact with my trainer that's out of vegas and hopefully go out there and work out for a few months and and then really from there it's just head into spring training and you know start a whole new year i think in 2021 i think we got a really good chance you know we got some big guys coming back for us i think towards the end of 2020 you guys could kind of see what we're capable of and you know how we're starting to start and get on some runs and we got some uh some young guys coming up that that can really swing and aren't afraid of the moment so um yeah i think 2021 is going to be special i think we're going to get a couple arms and i think we're going to be a a scary team thank you guys for for joining me on my little trip through fenway and you know a little q a i got nothing else for you guys i don't know what to do with my hands we got our eyes on 2021 new year guys all right we're gonna go get em let's go red sox [Music] step in my soul don't fade away [Music] away

Channel: Boston Red Sox

Views: 22,873

Rating: 4.956912 out of 5

Keywords: red sox, red socks, boston red sox, boston, fenway park, alex verdugo, red sox all-access, behind the scenes, mic'd up, alex verdugo mic'd up, david ortiz, spring training, regular season, mlb, baseball, baseball mic'd up, green monster, fenway, Alex Verdugo Boston Red Sox

Id: yt2V4Wins-E

Length: 23min 58sec (1438 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 22 2020