Yankees make rare Red Sox trade for Alex Verdugo, reportedly remain in Juan Soto sweepstakes

The New York Yankees made a historic trade Tuesday, but not the one their fans have been waiting for.

The Yankees acquired outfielder Alex Verdugo from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for right-handed pitchers Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert and Nicholas Judice, the team announced.

Fitts is the Yankees' No. 12 prospect on MLB Pipeline, while Judice, the team's eighth-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, isn't ranked in the team's top 30. Weissert made his MLB debut in 2022 and holds a 4.60 ERA in the big leagues.

The trade is a rare deal between the two sides of MLB's premier rivalry. Going off MLB.com's count, it is only the eighth Yankees-Red Sox trade in MLB's divisional era (since 1969). That said, the pace has picked up recently, as this is also the third time the teams have made a trade since 2021.

The most recent Yankees-Red Sox trade came in January, an exchange of Diego Hernandez and Greg Allen. The Yankees also sent Frank Herman and Adam Ottavino to Boston in 2021.

Verdugo has mostly been a popular player in Boston in his four years with the team, alternating between average and above-average at the plate while serving as a boisterous clubhouse presence. He remains most notable among Red Sox fans as the crown jewel of the team's return from the Mookie Betts trade, which obviously hasn't worked out for the team, but Verdugo isn't the one primarily at fault for that.

What does this mean for the Yankees and Juan Soto?

The bigger question is what the arrival of Verdugo means for the Yankees, who at last glance were engaged in the bidding for San Diego Padres outfielder Juan Soto.

Soto is the premier trade candidate in this year's offseason, between his pending free agency and the Padres' reportedly looking to reduce payroll. The Yankees loomed as an obvious fit, but Verdugo could be seen as a way to cover the corner outfield hole opposite Aaron Judge that Soto was supposed to fill.

There apparently still isn't much of a conflict for the Yankees, though, as ESPN's Jeff Passan, the New York Post's Jon Heyman and The Athletic's Brendan Kuty all report that the team remains very much in the Soto race. If New York does pull off a trade, Heyman says the plan is presumably for Judge to play center field, where he has some experience.

On the other hand, the Yankees might not love asking their 32-year-old, $360 million man to play a more demanding position when he sustained a significant toe injury in 2023.