By Paul Semendinger
December 7, 2022
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"The New York Yankees are re-signing reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge, according to Jon Morosi of MLBNetwork. According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, the deal is for nine years and $360 million."
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INITIAL THOUGHTS:
This had to be done. The Yankees had no choice.
BUT, this cannot be the Yankees' only big move.
The Yankees, in order to win, cannot, let this contract be the reason they do not address other areas of need this off-season or into the future.
For example, wow the Yankees need to acquire at least one more starting pitcher and they need to address left field...
But this is a great first step. (Really, the second step, signing Anthony Rizzo was the first step this off-season.)
I am thrilled that the Yankees made sure they brought Judge back. The Yankees came up HUGE today.
UPDATES:
JUST FOR FUN.... I should have predicted this number. I was saying $333 million (3+3+3 =9) but $360 million (3+6 =9) is the same result.
According to Jon Morosi (see below), Aaron Judge turned down bigger offers to stay a Yankee. (But, Mr. Morosi, Judge is not the AL Home Run King. He is the Single-Season AL Home Run king. There is a difference. A big difference.)
MORE:
Aaron Judge should now end his career as a TOP-5 Yankee All-Time in bWAR.
Judge has 37 bWAR currently (24th place all-time)
Derek Jeter is in 5th place with 71.3 bWAR
If Aaron Judge averages just 3.83 bWAR per season over the nine-year contract, he'll top Jeter's total.
To exceed Joe DiMaggio in fourth place (79.2 bWAR), Judge would have to average just under 4.7 bWAR each season.
Mickey Mantle (in third place at 110.2) seems quite secure.
Give Hal Steinbrenner great credit for getting this done (see Jack Curry's tweet below.) It seems Steinbrenner is in Italy and he worked hard to make this happen from across the seas. GREAT JOB! This is how winners operate!
As I wrote a few weeks ago, I was hoping to see the Yankees operate like this when Hal Steinbrenner spoke up at the Owner's Meetings. "We are the Yankees and we will do what we have to do to win." (See here.)
Per Bob Nightengale (see Tweet below), Judge turned down 10 years/$400mm from San Diego. (Thanks yankeesblog.)
(A polite note to other writers/bloggers/podcasters/broadcasters/etc... if you use some of this information, feel free, it is free, but please give us credit when you do. This is our own original work, our own ideas, our research, and such. It's only fair to credit the source.)
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I will continue to update this post throughout the day as other information comes forward...
