Yankees’ Alex Verdugo homers in with new batting gloves after allergy diagnosis
A new shipment arrived from Franklin on Saturday, and Alex Verdugo quickly unwrapped a new pair of batting gloves.
“They feel the same,” Verdugo said before the game against the Rockies in The Bronx. “I’m kind of surprised — same color combo, nothing different.”
What is different, according to Franklin, the company that is the official supplier of Major League Baseball batting gloves, is the chemicals used in the production of the gloves.
No cobalt or chromate was used, Franklin told Verdugo, in response to his surprising diagnosis of being allergic to his own batting gloves, a discovery first reported by NJ Advance Media.
What might also be different is his results at the plate: Verdugo’s first game with the new gloves was promising.
He smoked a fourth-inning home run to right-center, his first dinger since July 6.
Hours beforehand, Verdugo shone a light on the back of his hands to reveal red blotches and blisters that he said he first began noticing in 2021 or ’22.
He knew immediately that something was amiss: He was used to calluses and blisters and bruises that built up from constant swings, but on the palms of his hands — not on the other side.
Unsure what was wrong, Verdugo began taping his hands underneath his batting gloves.
It took until this year’s All-Star break, when he made an appointment with a doctor, that he learned the surprise cause of the irritation.
Perhaps it has affected the hitting of an outfielder who started so well this year before falling into a deep spiral.
Since June 4, the 28-year-old entered play hitting just .198 with a pair of home runs and had been among the game’s worst hitters.
Verdugo does not know the extent to which the blisters have affected him, but he is relieved he believes he has found a cause of his hand issues and a solution.
“I’m happy. We’ll see,” Verdugo said before the game. “Hopefully we can use them with no tape on my hands and we’ll see how it goes. It just makes it a lot easier to do a lot more things.”
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