Yankees Thought They Were Going To Lose Aaron Judge
How close did the Yankees come to losing Aaron Judge? Apparently, closer than a lot of people think. Judge expressed displeasure with general manager Brian Cashman leaking contract information to the media. The Time Magazine interview had Yankees officials sweating!
“I had that feeling that we were going to lose him,” an unnamed Yankees official told ESPN.
That ESPN link is by Buster Olney who stinks and it’s also behind a paywall so don’t bother clicking it. I just have to warn you. The important part here is the quote itself.
The Yankees closed the deal with Judge by getting him to sign a 9-year agreement worth $360 million. The fear was that the Giants and Padres were willing to go north of $400 million on a 10-year deal. It’s no secret that San Francisco wanted Judge bad and was even being recruited by Barry Bonds. Judge is also from California which matters.
There is apparently an infamous story out there that nobody cares about talking about how Hal Steinbrenner closed the deal by vacationing in Italy. The only thing that we need to never forget is the egregious error made by Jon Heyman when he reported that Judge was signing with San Francisco.
The $40 million AAV is a record for any positon player. It’s an enormous contract given out by the Yankees. Is this even a contract New York will want on the books three years from now? All of that remains to be seen.
