On the final day of the regular season, Alex Verdugo said he did not know how he viewed his role entering the playoffs.
But the much-maligned Yankees left fielder was more certain about the postseason offering the potential for a reset.
“Playoffs is every pitch, every inning, every at-bat matters,” Verdugo said Sunday after delivering a go-ahead, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth to help the Yankees finish the regular season with a 94-68 record.
“It’s no longer about what you did in the [regular] season, it’s really not. It’s about what you go out there and do and how clutch you can be.”
How much of an opportunity Verdugo will have for redemption in October, though, remains to be seen.
Among the biggest Yankees questions heading into the ALDS is how they will handle left field, a debate between Verdugo’s more reliable glove versus Jasson Dominguez’s more impactful offensive skills.
Verdugo just had the worst offensive season of his career, batting .233 with a .647 OPS across 149 games, but he has proven to be reliable defensively in left field.
He also has previous playoff experience, batting .310 with a .835 OPS in Boston’s 11-game run to the ALCS in 2021.
Dominguez, a natural center fielder who was called up Sept. 9, has looked shaky at times in left field but offers a much higher ceiling with his bat and legs, even though he hit only .179 with a .617 OPS in 18 games.
“I’ve been encouraged with the last couple days out there,” manager Aaron Boone said Sunday of Dominguez’s defense. “Especially [Saturday], I thought he made some really good plays on a tough-condition day with the drizzle and the wind. I thought he moved well out there, made some tougher plays look easy. So that’s encouraging.
“We’ll continue to work out there and he’s certainly keeping himself in the mix.”
Boone has said that defense will play a big factor in the left field decision, though it was notable that he started Dominguez there in each of the last five games of the season.
He also slightly left the door open for the Yankees to move Juan Soto to left field and Aaron Judge back to right so Dominguez could play center, though it would be surprising to try that alignment at Yankee Stadium with a spacious left field.
It could work somewhere like Minute Maid Park if the Astros advance to the ALCS, but the Yankees have to get there first.
