New York Yankees outfielder Alex Verdugo is having one of many worst seasons of his profession on the plate and a latest discovery by a specialist may need revealed a part of the issue.
He’s apparently allergic to his batting gloves.
Significantly.
Verdugo lately advised NJ Advance Media’s Randy Miller that he has been dealing with hand issues which have produced blistering and sores because the 2021 season. Through the All-Star break he remained in New York to see a specialist who discovered he has an allergy to cobalt and chromate, two chemical substances within the Franklin batting gloves that he has been utilizing.
Docs that spoke with Miller speculated that Verdugo’s tattoos may be the supply of his allergy.
“NJ Advance Media spoke to 2 docs, considered one of whom believes Verdugo’s situation is likely to be associated to the ink within the many tattoos protecting his chest and arms,” Miller writes. “Neither has examined Verdugo and each are speculating on attainable causes and cures. ‘It’s in all probability the tattoos,’ mentioned Dr. Arthur Lubitz, a Manhattan-based allergist who has been a Yankees fan because the late Fifties. ‘It’s very uncommon, however the tattoos are manufactured from metallic ink and you may get a tattoo allergy to the metallic.’”
Of the chance that his tattoos may very well be the problem, Verdugo mentioned, “My tattoos? Man, I by no means considered that.”
This might be a staggering improvement in Verdugo’s profession and maybe one of many strangest sources of a participant’s decline that you might ever think about. However it might even be utterly comprehensible. Given the signs that Verdugo described — dry pores and skin, scabs, sores, and so forth. — gripping a baseball bat and even fielding a baseball may really feel terribly painful. There isn’t any means that he has been comfy on the plate given these circumstances.
Verdugo’s manufacturing has been steadily declining because the 2021 season when he began experiencing the signs.
Through the pandemic-shortened 2020 season — the yr earlier than the signs started —Verdugo had his greatest season within the majors, hitting .308 with an .844 OPS in 53 video games, leading to a Twelfth-place end within the American League MVP voting.
In 2021 — when the signs started — his common dropped all the way down to .289 with a .777 OPS.
In 2022 he was all the way down to .280 with a .732 OPS.
In 2023 it was .264 with a .745 OPS.
Now this season Verdugo entered play on Friday with a .239 common and a .665 OPS by means of 117 video games performed, each the worst numbers of his profession.
Perhaps it’s a coincidence. Or possibly there really is one thing that’s bodily impacting his capacity to hit the baseball the best way he used to earlier in his profession.
