Right now, the Yankees are currently playing the Blue Jays to wrap-up their short two-game stint against the Jays. At the time of writing this, New York is holding onto a lead and it would be a huge win coming off the heels of the massive win that took place last night.
Last night, the Yankees were down two runs going into the ninth inning. After a couple of walks, Aaron Judge stepped up to the plate. Despite being arguably the most feared power-hitter in baseball, Judge had never hit a walk-off home run in his career with the Yankees.
That changed last night. On a 1-2 count, Judge caught a hanging slider and hit it 450 feet into the second deck in left field. The shot secured a win for the Yankees and it secured the top spot in MLB’s home run rankings to Aaron Judge.
Thus far in the 2022 season, Aaron Judge is off to a tremendous start. You can make the argument that the Yankees star is off to the best start of his career. It’s either this year or 2017 for the superstar outfielder.
Yankees Need To Pay Up
Before the season started, the Yankees tried to ink Judge to a lengthy extension. Specifically, New York came forward with a seven-year, $213.5 million contract extension that would start after this year.
The AAV of the deal would pay Judge $30.5 million a year which seems like a good offer. Now, I think we all know that Judge is worth more than $30.5 million a year especially to the New York Yankees.
Judge and his reps knew that fact as well. The Yankees came forward with a fair offer considering the fact that Judge has been an injury-prone player since his MVP contending season in 2017.
However, Judge was healthy last season and he’s remained healthy this season while playing at the highest level of his career. Entering his free agency year, Judge and his reps rejected the offer that New York threw out.
Some, including myself, thought it was a risky move by the Yankees star. However, if he keeps playing the way he is, it was a stroke of genius. The power-move was just another testament to the greatness and confidence of Aaron Judge.
I truly believe that Aaron Judge will spend his entire career with the Yankees. They cannot let him walk. That being said, their offer is going to have to come up in a big way especially if he keeps playing at this level.
While Judge said talks would have to wait until the season is over, don’t be surprised if Cashman is slowly upping the offer behind the scenes. Cashman said they wouldn’t comment on in publicly moving forward. This will be definitely something to watch as the season goes on.