He was out by a mile either way.

I mean...that doesn't seem all that bad? Yeah, Verdugo lets up for maybe a second or so, and for that he should be on the receiving end of a thorough scolding, but as far as hustle failures go it's not particularly egregious. It probably looks worse because he didn't slide.

Was he going full speed before he slowed down, or did he slow down from three-quarters speed to start with? He didn't look to be going all out before the hesitation.

I mean maybe he missed a steal sign? Seems like a routine play to me.

I mean...that doesn't seem all that bad? Yeah, Verdugo lets up for maybe a second or so, and for that he should be on the receiving end of a thorough scolding, but as far as hustle failures go it's not particularly egregious. It probably looks worse because he didn't slide.

Yeah. It seems obvious there must be more going on than just that one play--Cora must have been riding Vandugo about loafing for some time.

Verdugo's been there a while and is one of the Red Sox' best hitters. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. But given how the last season-plus has gone, you begin to wonder if Cora's losing the room and on his way out.

Yeah, from the story I was expecting something a lot more egregious than what showed up.

Doesn’t seem particularly egregious, but it’s hard to judge how hard Verdugo is running when he comes into view on that clip. Looks like glancing back at the fielder slowed him down somewhat. Perhaps Cora is trying to light a fire under his last place team, but not sure how utilizing this incident and this player will be received.

Oli Marmol approves of this action but thinks Cora should embarrass him furthur by talking more to the press about it

He's out either way but perhaps if he runs harder they try to make the play at first . I don't know seems trivial to me

The proper way for Verdugo to have played it was to run full speed, dive across the bag, beat the throw by a millisecond, and then get tagged out after oversliding the base.

I might be alone here, but it doesn't look like he was running hard at any point. It's possible Yoshida was going to get to first before Verdugo got to second, and when you're starting with a lead and the chance to run as soon as the ball is struck, that simply shouldn't happen. I think if he's running hard on contact, it's at least a close play.

It looks comically bad to me. He is jogging to second, looks back and sees a defender possibly making a play, then surges and then can't slide because he mistimed everything with his loafing and looking. Looking back is comically bad. His ass should be running hard for second and sliding, not looking back at defenders. I'm surprised at the support he is getting in this thread.

I don't really know how fast Verdugo is. He didn't seem to be loafing but (to pick a guy) that seemed more like Paul Goldschmidt speed than good OF speed. (PG as a guy who strikes me as quick enough -- outstanding base stealer in fact -- but not fast.) Maybe that was even Rizzo speed.

Surprising factoid -- Goldschmidt has stolen 30 straight bases dating back to 2019. He's running wild this year with 7. (Verdugo is just 18 for 27 career so maybe Rizzo is the better comparison.)

Anyway, definitely not good baserunning, not sure it was benchable. Also it seems we've seen more of this benching this year but maybe not.

Good play by Naylor too. With the possible exception of Hernandez, you'd never see a 1B roaming that far from the bag on a grounder back in the day. I'd love for somebody to do a study of that because I think there have been some noticeable changes to 1B defense over the past 5-10 years but nobody seems to be noticing them so maybe it's just in my head.

Verdugo gets to second before Yoshida makes it to first. The throw beats him no matter what he did.

There's a correct way to play baseball, and he didn't do any of the things he was supposed to do.

1) Once you read about Verdugo "failing to hustle", you can kind of see it when you watch the play in question. But it is not over-the-top: Usually, when you read a story like this, it is a batter not running to first on a routine grounder to 2B, or a routine fly out. This is an unusual one.

2) Without that context, you could conclude that Verdugo was slowing down because he thought Cleveland was going to try to tag him out instead of touching the bag; if you thought that was the case, you'd slow down to buy time for the batter to get the first base, and avoid a double play. Obviously, Cora didn't see it that way.

3) Also obviously, this is not the first straw on the camel's back. I am very surprised - Verdugo is a fan favorite, seems like a scrappy player, his teammates seem to like him, and he seems to have handled being the de facto "primary return" for Betts about as well as anyone could.

But if he has ongoing attitude problems, then he may be putting himself in a tough spot in Boston sooner than later. He starts making real money shortly, and (as I banged the drum about many times here) I think he is...an OK player. There are fans who want to sign him to a Yoshida-like extension, and I am not interested in something that lucrative or long-term. He is a slightly-above-average hitter, an average defender, and a below-average runner. He has, if anything, regressed since the 2020 season, though his hot April in 2023 buoys his season stats for now.

If he is a scrappy team leader and fan favorite, a guy with that profile can get like a 4/$52m extension this off-season. But if Cora and management think he's got an attitude problem, then what's the point of keeping him around beyond next year?

I hope this is a blip thing, lesson learned by Verdugo, and he has a successful rest of the season. This team is on the ropes a little bit - a couple more variables going well or poorly will decide our trajectory.

2) Without that context, you could conclude that Verdugo was slowing down because he thought Cleveland was going to try to tag him out instead of touching the bag; if you thought that was the case, you'd slow down to buy time for the batter to get the first base, and avoid a double play. Obviously, Cora didn't see it that way.

Is part of that context there were already two outs, so the double play is kind of overkill at that point?

Goldschmidt's been among the best baserunners in baseball throughout his career, hasn't he?

Whatever happened Verdugo bounced back last night with a two hit game against Cole. What struck me was there was a play where he singled to left-center and he was hustling thinking about turning it into a double before retreating. No matter the specifics here he played last night the way you want a guy to play after a benching.

He and Cora have always seemed to have a good relationship, Verdugo is often chatting with him during innings when the Sox are at bat. Like others I don't recall seeing Verdugo overtly not hustle either generally or even on this play. Part of me wonders if this was a bit of team management by Cora benching his best player* as a message to what is in a lot of key areas a young and developing team. I suspect that's not what happened and that for whatever reason Cora felt like he needed to send a message to Verdugo though.

* he's not but he leads the team in WAR

But if he has ongoing attitude problems, then he may be putting himself in a tough spot in Boston sooner than later. He starts making real money shortly, and (as I banged the drum about many times here) I think he is...an OK player. There are fans who want to sign him to a Yoshida-like extension, and I am not interested in something that lucrative or long-term.

Unknown attitude problems aside I'd sign him to that deal. Verdugo is Trot Nixon. He has no business being the best or second best player on a team but he IS a good player, the Sox don't have an obvious replacement for him yet. The good news for the Sox is that they have another year to make that decision.

I think Jose nails it....Verdugo has made great strides this year. He's flying out of the box and playing a mean right field (which stands out on this execrable defensive team). Bench your best young player, with whom you have a solid relationship, and nip this type of thing in the bud before he starts playing like last year again. Also, every ground ball to Josh Naylor should be run out hard as there is no telling what might happen!

Goldschmidt's been among the best baserunners in baseball throughout his career, hasn't he?

For his speed yes. He has had a 30 sb season, and has been in double digits 6 times in his career, even had a season where he had more steals(32) than hr(24). And as Walt pointed out, he just doesn't get caught as he has aged,

When I watched the clip, Verdugo's effort looked BAD to me. He may still have been out running full speed - but you only get 27 of them and you can't gift one to the defense.

With a runner on first and a ground ball between first and second, the runner should be running hard under virtually any circumstances, right? Unless he's avoiding a batted ball or the fielder is standing right there with the ball in his hand, you want to see a hard run and a hard slide.

The ball is behind him, so maaaybe it's acceptable to just run in the throwing lane. But running upright, then taking several steps to slow down instead of sliding looks bad.