Braves latest signing makes Orioles rival's lineup decisions look even worse

The Braves are going free agent shopping at the bottom of the barrel right now. With less than a week to go before Opening Day, Atlanta has brought in two aging veterans and former Orioles in Craig Kimbrel and James McCann, and now outfielder Alex Verdugo, all on small deals. The idea is obviously to try to catch lightning in a bottle, but given these guys' recent performance, it's a long shot.

The Verdugo signing, which was announced Thursday afternoon by Jon Heyman of the NY Post, is quite the choice. Verdugo signed a one-year deal worth $1.5 million, which is almost certainly a good bit less than the number he was hoping to get.

There were rumors earlier this winter that the Pirates, among other teams, were reportedly in verbal discussions with Verdugo and talking about a potential deal in the range of $8 million or so. However, it was reported just this week that Verdugo never received a formal contract offer from any organization this winter. The fact that so few teams were interested in Verdugo's services has to make you question the Yankees' approach last year.

Alex Verdugo's new contract brings the Yankees' poor decision making in 2024 back to light

After all, New York was playing Verdugo over top prospect Jasson Dominguez in the season's biggest moments last year. And it's not like Verdugo had exactly earned the spot, seeing as he hit a dismal .233/.291/.356 in 2024. The decision to play Verdugo over Dominguez was rightly questioned at the time. Given the fact that Verdugo was seen by what looks like 29 teams as a non-factor, it makes you wonder what, exactly, the Yankees were doing.

We'll certainly never know the answer to that question, and it doesn't make a lick of difference since the Orioles never even got their postseason off the ground. But it does create a level of uncertainty in regards to the Yankees' organization, and that's a good thing for Orioles fans. New York was clearly willing to make a visible mistake by playing Verdugo over Dominguez, and they didn't seem to care about the criticism at the time.

And here we are just a few months later and Verdugo was only able to scrape what's essentially a minor league contract out of the free agent market. As an Orioles fan, this is a fine outcome. No, we can't change the results of the Orioles' postseason games but we can still look at the Yankees' decision making and know that it probably led to their October demise. That's good enough for now.