04/18/24
December 07, 2022
Yankees, Aaron Judge Agree To Nine-Year Deal: The New York Yankees are re-signing reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com. It’s a nine-year, $360MM contract, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The agreement is still pending the completion of a physical.
Bay area sports fans went through some yo-yo string pulling.
First it was the Niners' Jimmy G out for the year and it looked like Judge was heading to the Giants.
Then Jimmy's injury status was upgraded and he should return at some point - but Judge signed with the Yanks.
posted by beaverboard at 08:33 PM on December 07, 2022
Mitch Haniger is going to be great for the Giants. (Not kidding.)
Apparently top-tier free agents in baseball have only signed back with their old teams two or three times this century. Most players who get that far want to leave--look at Justin Verlander, who took his World Series victory and his Cy Young award and promptly decamped to the Mets. Judge returning to the Yankees is a pretty big deal. His brand is strong enough in terms of ticket and merchandise sales that the team won't regret it. And there's no reason he can't turn into Nelson Cruz the last few years while continuing to lead the team.
posted by werty at 11:10 PM on December 07, 2022
I think the most shocking part of this contract is how unsurprising it is. Judge was always going to get paid, it was just a matter of by whom. Makes a lot of sense for him to stay put in the biggest market.
But I would expect him to start being more visible in ad campaigns. Am I missing him somehow?
posted by tahoemoj at 01:47 PM on December 08, 2022
Good job, A-Aron! As the kids say, get that bag! Good for the Yankees signing him longterm, but as with any superstar contract, the last half of it is gonna suuuuuuuuck for the team.