The New York Yankees squandered their opportunity to sign slugger Aaron Judge to a monster extension this past off-season. General manager Brian Cashman dragged negotiations until the final day but made the contract numbers public to try and spook him into signing a deal.
Judge’s representatives decided to stand tall, declining the offer and heading into the 2022 season with unknowns for the future. However, Judge is making himself a lot of money with his performance, leading Major League Baseball with 18 homers and 38 RBIs. He’s hitting .303 with a 10.3% walk rate and striking out below his career average at 26.1%.
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Aaron Judge is the Yankees’ best player, and it’s not close:
The 30-year-old veteran hosts a 62% hard-hit percentage and 25.6% barrel rate, the two highest numbers of his career. It is no secret that Judge is hitting the baseball extremely well, but he’s also offered plenty of value on the defensive side. Judge has been asked to play right field and centerfield, holding down both admirably. In fact, during Tuesday’s win over the Los Angeles Angels, Judge plucked a home run from over the centerfield wall, stealing one away from Shohei Ohtani.
Former Yankee utilityman, Tyler Wade, did his best to convince Judge to join the Los Angeles Angels after the 2022 season finishes.
“You never know, I might have planted a couple seeds,” Wade said before Tuesday’s game. “But you never know. He’s having a great year, I’m happy for him. He deserves everything that’s coming to him. What he does on the field and off the field, it’s special and you can’t replicate that.”
Wade currently features with the Angels as their utilityman but didn’t get the start on Tuesday. Judge has already stated he wants to spend the rest of his career and pinstripes, but if a team like Los Angeles is willing to give him top dollar to play alongside Ohtani and Mike Trout, it would be incredibly difficult to stifle their attempt.
Nonetheless, Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner would be foolish to let Judge leave the Yankees, considering the season he’s currently having and how important he is to the organization’s overall image.