BIG NEWS! JUDGE STAYS!
- Paul Semendinger
- Dec 7, 2022
- 2 min read
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...
Yoshida off the board - to the Red Sox 5 years/$90 million.
https://www.mlb.com/news/masataka-yoshida-red-sox-deal
Rodon might resign with SF ... wouldn't surprise me and Benintendi might be too rich for Yankees in terms of both $$ and length of contract. Brantley might be better via a shorter contract. I find it hard to believe Yankees won't be able to find someone to play LF!
New York is in "daily contact" with Carlos Rodón, a starter they preferred over Verlander and deGrom since he's younger (turns 30 this weekend) and a left-hander, perJon Heyman of the New York Post.
Padres offered 10/$400 million. Judge said no.
https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1600511401654554625
Well, that was a close call. Despite Judge's annoyance with Cashman leaking the details of the Yankees offer back in the spring, Judge realized the value of his Yankee legacy and I would suspect his loyalty to his teammates. Monument Valley in left-center beckons. Now we move to phase 2. Hal needs to keep the checkbook open and land another starter and settle the left field issue. Would love to see Rodon in pinstripes. Paul, Cary and others have emphasized the need to rebalance the starting pitching toward more left handers so the Yankees can capitalize on the traditional Yankee stadium "Death Valley" syndrome preventing opposing teams from loading up on left handed hitters taking advantage of Yankee right-handed pitching…