Yankees outfielder Verdugo ready for ‘fresh start’
NEW YORK — Alex Verdugo complied with the New York Yankees‘ rule against facial hair by a lot more than a whisker. He clipped off his red beard two months before spring training.
“My mom loves it,” he said Thursday, showing off his impeccably shaved face during a Zoom news conference. “My mom thinks I look like her little boy again. She says I look like I’m back in high school.”
New York acquired the 27-year-old outfielder from the Boston Red Sox on Dec. 5 for right-handers Greg Weissert, Richard Fitts and Nicholas Judice, part of an offseason makeover that included getting slugging All-Star Juan Soto in a trade with San Diego the following day.
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner issued a code in 1976 banning facial hair, lengthy locks that dropped below the collar and long sideburns. Once Verdugo was dealt to New York, he felt razor focused to conform.
“It was kind of bothering me, man. That was the biggest thing going to the Yankees, you have to be clean shaven,” he said. “I haven’t been clean shaven since high school and even then, I would have some stuff on my chin, some things like that. It was just kind of eating at me. And I was like, you know what, I don’t even know how I look without a beard. I want to cut it up, see how it feels. And then also, I wanted to – since you have to keep up the shaving. I wanted to see like how my skin would react to constantly shaving and keeping it clean.”
Verdugo had liked the beard for warmth.
“It feels like a fresh start,” he said. “I feel like a kid again.”
Speaking from his home in Arizona, Verdugo said he has been working out in a Yankees cap. He wore No. 27 with Boston, a number held by Giancarlo Stanton in New York. Verdugo said he’ll wait until he gets a new pendant to reveal his new jersey.
He hit .264 with 13 homers, 54 RBI and a .745 OPS this year in his fourth season with the Red Sox. A Gold Glove finalist, he had 12 outfield assists and nine defensive runs saved.
New York manager Aaron Boone thinks the left-handed-hitting Verdugo could benefit from Yankee Stadium’s short porch.
“I think there’s more in there,” Boone said. “I don’t necessarily think he’s reached his potential. So hopefully this environment for him and obviously entering the last year before free agency, there’s a lot carrots out there.”
Verdugo bristled when he first learned of the trade.
“I was hot. I was just like, man, they really me sent to rivals, the Yankees?” he said.
Verdugo was benched twice last season by Boston manager Alex Cora: on June 8 for not hustling between first and second on a grounder a night earlier, and on Aug. 5 for arriving late at the ballpark.
“It toughens me up and it makes me realize some things,” Verdugo said. “I’m not too sure 100% what it was. It could also be you’re struggling on a baseball team. It’s just there’s a lot of expectations and when you’re not really meeting them, you kind of start bumping heads a little bit.”
He complimented Boone for defending his players, citing the profane 2019 rant at umpire Brennan Miller in which the manager praised his team as “savages.”
“That’s something I want to see out of my head coach, man. I want to see some fire, some fight for the guys,” Verdugo said. “I think just instead of airing people out, have their backs.”
Verdugo said veterans reached out to him during difficult days in Boston.
“I want to prove maybe a lot of these he said, she said things wrong,” he said. “We’re all people, man. We’re all humans. And, yeah, we make mistakes, but how do we learn from it and how do we bounce back from it and how how much stronger do we get from that?”
His visits to the Bronx as an opponent did not go smoothly. In July 2021, Verdugo was struck on the back by a baseball thrown from Yankee Stadium’s left-field stands.
“It’s part of that rivalry,” he said. “The mindset in New York, how people talk – they’re a little bit more aggressive and they’re kind of straight to the point. I like that, man. I enjoy it. And I think when they see me play every day and they see me bust my butt and work hard, I think they’ll like what they see.”
-
Eli Lederman
North Carolina and coach Bill Belichick are working toward hiring Bobby Petrino as the program’s next offensive coordinator, sources confirmed to ESPN on Monday.
Offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens was fired earlier this month after the Tar Heels ranked 131st nationally in total offense (288.8 yards per game) in 2025.
Petrino, the former head coach at Arkansas, returned to the Razorbacks in 2024, where he served as offensive coordinator for the past two seasons. He took over as interim coach after the program fired Sam Pittman on Sept. 28. He’s also served as head coach at Louisville, Western Kentucky and Missouri State and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
UNC sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel that there are still multiple steps remaining before any potential hire is announced. No announcement is imminent and other candidates remain engaged in the process.
The move back into the top job at Arkansas marked a full-circle turnaround for Petrino, who was fired by the Razorbacks in 2012 for misleading officials about an extramarital affair with an athletic department employee. The Razorbacks went 0-7 under Petrino’s leadership this fall en route to a 2-10 finish, and Arkansas hired Memphis‘ Ryan Silverfield as its head coach on Nov. 30.
The Tar Heels are seeking to revamp their offense following a 4-8 season in 2025. Only five FBS teams finished this past season with fewer yards per game than North Carolina, which also ranked 121st in scoring offense (19.3 PPG) and 124th in rushing (105.3) in Belichick’s debut season at UNC.
Under Kitchens, the former Cleveland Browns head coach, the Tar Heels scored 15 points or fewer in six of their 12 games.
Petrino has built a reputation for turning around struggling offenses throughout his career.
As a head coach, he led Louisville from 2003 to 2006 before one season with the Falcons. At Arkansas, he went 21-5 in the final two seasons before he was fired in December 2012.
Petrino spent the 2023 season as the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M prior to joining Pittman’s staff at Arkansas in 2024. With Petrino calling plays, the Razorbacks improved from 107th to 10th nationally in yards per game (326.5 to 459.5) last year. Despite going winless in its final 10 games in 2025, Arkansas closed the regular season ranked inside the top 25 nationally in both scoring (32.0 PPG), total offense (454.8 YPG) and rushing (191.9 YPG) among FBS programs.
Each of the previous two head coaches Petrino has worked for — Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher and Pittman — have been fired within two seasons. If a deal is finalized, Petrino will arrive at North Carolina ahead of a pivotal season under Belichick, who went 2-6 in ACC play in 2025.
The Tar Heels’ intention to hire Petrino was first reported by On3.
-
Jake Trotter
Ohio State coach Ryan Day said he will take over calling offensive plays in the Buckeyes’ College Football Playoff opener on New Year’s Eve against Miami.
Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, who had called plays this season, is balancing responsibilities, having recently taken the head coaching job at USF.
Day added that Hartline will focus on coaching Ohio State’s receivers in the CFP.
“We wanted to take [playcalling] off of Brian’s plate because he’s got so much going on with what he’s trying to do,” Day said Monday. “Ultimately it will be my decision what calls go into the game.”
As head coach, Day called Ohio State’s offensive plays until last season, when he relinquished those duties to Chip Kelly. After the Buckeyes won the national championship, Kelly left to be the offensive coordinator for the Las Vegas Raiders and Day promoted Hartline from receivers coach.
Under Hartline, the Buckeyes rank 17th nationally in scoring, averaging almost 35 points per game, though they scored only 10 in their Big Ten championship loss to Indiana. The Buckeyes twice drove the ball inside the Indiana 10-yard line in the second half but failed to come up with any points.
Miami knocked off Texas A&M 10-3 on Saturday in the first round to advance to face the second-seeded Buckeyes at the Cotton Bowl.
-
Adam Rittenberg
Michigan interim coach Biff Poggi described the program as a “malfunctioning organization” after a series of high-profile scandals, one he hopes to “fix” if he has the interim tag removed.
Poggi, who has interviewed with athletic director Warde Manuel for the job, told reporters Monday that Michigan must conduct a “massive self-examination of what’s happened in this building.”
The school on Dec. 10 fired coach Sherrone Moore for cause for having an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Moore subsequently was charged with three crimes, including felony third-degree home invasion, after allegedly confronting the staff member at her home. He spent several nights in the Washtenaw County Jail before being released on $25,000 bond.
Michigan in 2023 went through the signal-stealing scandal involving former staff member Connor Stalions, which led to the Big Ten-imposed suspension of coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three regular-season games, and other penalties. The program had a separate recruiting violations case that yielded penalties for coaches, and also endured other scandals, including the firing of former offensive coordinator Matt Weiss, who faces a federal indictment for allegedly hacking into the computer accounts of college athletes to access intimate photos and videos, while working inside Michigan’s football building.
“It’s been five years of a malfunctioning organization,” said Poggi, in his third stint on the Michigan staff after working under both Moore and Harbaugh. “Let’s call it what it is: It’s happened every year. The athletic director doesn’t want any more of that.”
Poggi will lead Michigan against Texas in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31 in Florida. He said Monday that Manuel told the team that he expects to hire the next long-term coach before the game. The transfer portal opens Jan. 2, and Michigan is hoping to retain quarterback Bryce Underwood, the nation’s No. 1 recruit last year, and other notable players.
The 65-year-old Poggi worked as a hedge fund manager before entering coaching, spending most of his career as a high school coach in Maryland before first joining Harbaugh’s staff in 2016. He returned in 2021 as associate head coach before landing his only FBS head coaching job at Charlotte, where he was fired before the end of his second season after going 6-16. Poggi came back to Michigan this season.
Asked why he would be a strong choice for the long-term job, Poggi said, “Because I know what the hell I’m doing. … I want to fix this program.”
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment3 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024