Alex Verdugo thrives in the spotlight, but his best work is done in solitude

When the Red Sox opened their exhibition schedule on Sunday, Alex Verdugo had gone 574 days without playing baseball in front of fans. He decided to wait five more.

While his teammates experienced the early rush of competition, Verdugo stayed tucked away in the cages and back fields of JetBlue Park, fine-tuning a swing that he felt wasn’t quite ready for primetime — even if primetime in spring training meant a 1 p.m. game in a limited-capacity stadium, with nothing really on the line.

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This is not what some might expect from a player who proudly displays his grills, his tattoos and his chains, who wears the number 99, who talks about the leaps in his fashion game, who cheers his peers who are breaking baseball’s stodgy unwritten rules.

And it’s true that Verdugo loves attention and says he thrives in the spotlight. But as he enters his second season with the Red Sox, a deeper focus has begun to emerge from beneath his passionate exterior.

“I do think there’s an underlying (reality),” hitting coach Tim Hyers said. “He knows himself. He knows his swing as good as anybody. I mean, he knows the swing really, really well, too. … He is smart enough to know that it’s been better for him to stay disciplined and stay with his routine and prepare in the cages, and then go out and play.”

Verdugo is scheduled to play Friday afternoon, making his spring debut after a healthy holdout for the better part of a week. Bobby Dalbec has played in four games already, and no less a veteran than J.D. Martinez has played in three, but Verdugo, at just 24 years old and chomping at the bit, told manager Alex Cora he’d rather wait a few days to get his swing in order.

It’s a side of him that’s rarely seen, and that’s largely by design. Verdugo doesn’t even like to take batting practice on the field in front of fans and teammates. He prefers to hit in the cage where no one cheers a moonshot home run that looks pretty but doesn’t mean much.

In the cage, Verdugo can crank up a pitching machine’s velocity and stay focused on driving the ball up the middle, seeking a proper, consistent feel rather than a showy feat of strength. He sometimes hits on the field, too — he likes to see the way the ball’s flying — but if he does that too often, the swings add up and so does the fatigue. When he picks his battles, Verdugo picks solitude.

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“I think having some hard velo in the cage is just more realistic than seeing nice, easy BP and trying to lift,” he said.

Again, that’s the dichotomy between his public image and his private work. Trying to lift is the coolest thing in baseball these days, and Verdugo is a cool young player. Launch angle is all the rage, home runs sell, and the three true outcomes are celebrated. But Verdugo still cares about keeping his batting average up. He stays short to the ball, keeps his hands low, and lets his quick actions do the work. Home runs will come, he said, but his approach is a constant search for good, hard contact.

“It feels like so many people are reaching for power and reaching for the highlights instead of just really playing and grinding every single game,” he said. “For me, I’m just going to keep doing what I do. I’m a big bat-to-ball guy. I know I have power in my swing as well, it’s just a matter of when I want to take my shots, when I want to do that. And I think what’s more beneficial in this part of my career is going to be spraying the ball all over, getting on base, and letting some of these guys behind me kind of drive me in.”

Verdugo’s been that way for as long as Hyers has known him, and Hyers has known him longer than most in the Red Sox clubhouse. Hyers was a Dodgers hitting coach in 2016-17 when Verdugo was a big name on the Dodgers’ prospect heavy Double-A and Triple-A rosters, competing daily with fellow prospect Willie Calhoun to see who could put up the biggest numbers.

“I think he likes to win the battle,” Hyers said. “I think his winning and beating pitchers and succeeding is his, ‘I got you.’ That’s his thrill. Does he want to hit homers? Yeah. But he doesn’t have to because he knows what it takes to be successful, and it’s hitting for a high average, getting on base, and what Verdugo does best is that (feeling) of, ‘I won the battle.’ And to show the fans, hey, I’m legit.”

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Verdugo was legit to the fans stuck at home last season. In his first year after being the key return in the Mookie Betts trade, Verdugo led the Red Sox in batting average (.306) and on-base percentage (.367) while finishing behind only Xander Bogaerts in OPS (.844). It was a tremendous debut by the numbers, but it was notable too for the energy Verdugo brought to a last-place team in an empty stadium. It was easy to imagine the levels his enthusiasm might reach in a packed Fenway Park, or even a partially filled Fenway Park.

And, Hyers said, that’s part of the reason Verdugo chooses to do his work away from the crowd and away from the noise.

“He knows,” Hyers said, “that maybe trying to do too much, to show too much, in batting practice — sometimes trying to hit the ball too far, or just trying to hit some homers to show off in front of the crowd or the public — gets him in trouble.”

So, when the Red Sox started playing spring training games, Verdugo told Cora he wasn’t ready. Physically, he could play — the Red Sox insist there’s no health issue that’s kept him out of the lineup — but Verdugo knows his swing well enough to know when it’s not quite right, and he’s preferred to work out the kinks in the cage and in live batting practice.

“His process is very interesting,” Cora said. “I enjoy talking to him. It’s nothing about lack of preparation or other things. He’s just building up, and it’s part of his program, and I’m comfortable with it.”

Hyers said there’s nothing in particular Verdugo’s been working on. If anything, it may be his timing and the initial movements that set his swing in motion. Verdugo’s a feel hitter, meaning he doesn’t get too far in the weeds about mechanics and microscopic breakdowns. Verdugo has said he doesn’t care one bit about launch angle. But Verdugo knows the way his swing is supposed to feel. He can tell, Hyers said, when he’s early or late, when he’s not loading on time and when he’s not swinging with enough authority.

“He’s not the tinker guy where one day his hands are high and one day they’re low,” Hyers said. “He’s not that guy. Just (does) the little things to get him in a groove. But he’s been the same guy since I saw him in Double A. The exact same thing, and (he’s) raked. Ever since I’ve been around him, he’s hit.”

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Opening Day is less than four weeks away. Verdugo hasn’t played a game in front of fans in 19 months. When he finally does, he’ll have something to show them. Until then, he’s content to wait.

“If I’m feeling locked in, and I’m feeling where I need to be and cage is enough, then there’s no reason to try to push it or try and go do something for people to see me do it,” he said. “I’m getting my work in, and I know what I need to be ready for April 1.”

(Photo of Verdugo taking sundown batting practice: Billie Weiss / Boston Red Sox / Getty Images)

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