Alex Verdugo’s spiral at plate remains a concerning Yankees trend

BALTIMORE — Alex Verdugo was a key part of a thriving Yankee offense for the first six weeks of the regular season, with an .812 OPS until May 9.

But since then, the left fielder, who was brought in from Boston in the offseason to provide some much-needed balance to a righty-heavy lineup in The Bronx, has mostly struggled.

In his previous 58 games prior to Saturday’s 6-1 win against the Orioles at Camden Yards, Verdugo had just a .606 OPS.

Aaron Boone said Verdugo was “grinding, but I do feel like he’s doing a good job competing through that and know that he has that faith and confidence as a hitter that he’s gonna get it rolling.”

That’s one of the reasons the Yankees put Verdugo back at the top of the lineup Saturday in what’s seemed recently like a perpetual search for a leadoff hitter to get on in front of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.

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But recent history shows Verdugo might not be on the verge of turning his season around, despite Boone’s words of encouragement.

Verdugo’s production at the plate has slipped in each of his three-plus months as a Yankee.

After putting up an OPS of .804 by the end of April, Verdugo’s OPS in May was just .687 before it fell to .589 for the month of June.

And in the middle of July, Verdugo entered Saturday with a .563 OPS for the month.

In some ways, Verdugo’s dropoff is reminiscent of his season a year ago with the Red Sox, when he had an OPS of .856 in his first 72 games, but beginning in late June, he had a .620 OPS over his final 70 games of the season.

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Unlike what’s happened this year, though, Verdugo was mostly done in by a brutal June and a bad September.

The Yankees had hoped hitting alongside Judge and Soto, as well as other veterans like Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo, would take some pressure off Verdugo.

Stanton and Rizzo are hurt — and even when healthy, Rizzo never got going at the plate.

“We’ve seen some stretches, even over the last couple weeks, where we feel like he has started to get rolling,’’ Boone said. “Then he has a game where he doesn’t get much production, but we do feel like that’s close to being there.”

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And Boone added Verdugo’s history as a solid contact hitter should help him get out of his funk.

“He’s in the prime of his career,’’ Boone said. “That should show itself over time.”

The numbers, though, tell a slightly different story.

Verdugo is on track to put up some of the worst numbers of his career — including OPS and OPS-plus and his on-base percentage, down again, has dropped every year since 2021.

Through it all, though, Boone believes Verdugo’s mindset at the plate remains OK.

“I feel like from his frame of mind, he’s in an OK place,’’ Boone said. “I think he’s grinding and pissed, but I also feel he’s really confident he’s gonna get it going.”

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