Rosenthal: Yankees embrace Marcus Stroman and Alex Verdugo – and their big personalities

– Marcus Stroman, tone it down? “There is nobody in this process who was like, ‘Hey Stro, you need to…’” Stroman said. You can talk to them and they should be receptive.” A case in point occurred in June 2022, when former Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson created a stir by asking then-White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, “What’s up, Jackie?” Donaldson’s comment was a reference to a 2019 quote in which Anderson said he felt like he was the Jackie Robinson of trying to break baseball’s “have-fun barrier.” Donaldson said he was “just joking around,” but Anderson called his remark “disrespectful” and “unnecessary. Cora praised Verdugo’s defense and said that if he hits lefties the way he did in the first of his four seasons in Boston, he will be, “a complete player, the one everyone envisioned.” There also is this: Verdugo, like Soto, is entering his free-agent year. Rizzo credits Judge with holding the team together, noting, “With the personalities that have been brought in since I’ve been here, there’s never been any leaks about a divided clubhouse.” Boone predicts Verdugo, Stroman and Soto all will flourish as Yankees, saying, “A lot of it is because of our room.” They are who they are, right?