Aaron Judge Free Agency Points To Consider
 

1. If he goes anywhere, all about the money, he will be absolutely vilified by the Yankees fan base. Remember Robinson Cano? He was a shell of former self after leaving New York.

2. No one has resonated with Yankees fans any more than Judge since Derek Jeter, right up there with Mattingly, Mantle, even DiMaggio.

3. If he stays, he will almost certainly be named The Captain, the first since Jeter and since George Steinbrenner passed away.

I won't be mad at Judge if he leaves, but at the Yankees. I really hope they can resign him, and wherever he signs I hope he keeps hitting like he did.

One of the places we've seen talked about as going after Judge is San Francisco. He grew up a Giants fan less than 100 miles from the ballpark.

Can't blame a guy for going home, can you?

At his size and with his history he is a definite injury risk. I'm not sure how much money for how long I would want to commit to him, honestly.

I think the Yankees definitely resign him. Cano is really the only Yankee I can think of that they let walk during their prime years. But maybe they had an insight into issues to come and that's why they made that decision.

Even while Cano was great, Jeter was still on the team. As another poster said, Judge is the biggest thing since Jeter. I can't think of anyone like Judge that the Yankees let get away.

Yeah, Judge has played over 112 games in a season only 3 times, including 2022. So, never mind the normal aging process...he's got to get HEALTHIER in this 30's than he was in his 20's.

Regardless of his health at this point he will sign a long and massive contract. I hope he stayed but both San Francisco and L.A. have the funds and the desire to sign him.
I also think judge is a little upset about the way last years offer was handled and how the Yankees told the public the deal and the negative feedback he got from it

Nope, not one bit, and since he'll be in the NL, he won't have to put up with the boo's/ridicule that he'd get if he stayed in the AL.

Yes, no doubt whatever contract he signs will be very large, especially from a annual salary perspective. It won't be 10 years because of his age...that'll be interesting to see.

I hope bad initial offers don't hurt negotiations...if so, the Red Sox are in trouble.

The Yankees have the money to re-sign him, he should be a Yankee for life. That being said, His contract demand is going to be absurd, and he will most likely never have a season this good ever again. It's a tricky situation.

Someone will pay him. Witness Manny Machado.

The Giants would be foolish to sign Judge, especially to a long term contract. Better to take that money and sign 2 maybe 3 free agents to build a team like the Astros have done.

You have to wonder a little, will he follow Maris into a steep decline? His size and injury tendencies certainly make it a possibility.

Machado has done pretty well for the Padres since they signed him. In 4 seasons (including the shortened COVID season), he's been good for 17.6 WAR, hit .280 and has 108 home runs and 340 RBIs.

Had a weak post season and Yankee fans let him have it. Can I understand the disappointment? Sure. But booing this guy in a big way? Somehow I think he will survive if Yankee fans want to boo him in another uniform.

He had a great year this year but previously was at best very good, not really what you would expect out of the (at the time anyhow) highest salary in baseball. In the long term perhaps he will be worth it though. But my point was at the time he was demanding an absurd salary given his resume, but teams are so eager for talent that someone was willing to accede to his demands.

That's awful after the magnificent year he gave them.

The Giants need a 1st baseman, SS, and pitching, even then they're a few years away. Signing Judge would be like signing Bonds, sells tickets but no dough leftover to build the rest of the team, there's a reason they never won the World Series with him.

Judge has had a couple of nice years but he isn't in the same league as Bonds as a player.

Judge would be 100% better in the clubhouse than Bonds was, remember the Barcolounger, the clubhouse is where championships are won. I'd love to have him and Rizzo but there's no way he's signing a 2 year 17 mil deal with the Giants or anyone else, anything past that is money wasted.

I dunno, plenty of dysfunctional teams have won, I always thought that stuff was overrated.

I certainly hope the yankees can keep him...maybe sign him to a bobby bonilla type of deal where he gets paid for decades so the yankees can spend more $$$$ elsewhere? Give him ownership???? On the other hand...due to his size...and vulnerability to injury...and the fact that every high $$$$ long term contract the yankees have paid out to an aging superstar...has been a mistake...imo.

If not NY...I hope he goes home to SF.

I could just see him getting his picture in the dictionary next to "chronic oblique strain." I hope not, nothing at all to dislike about the man, but I could see it.

Clubhouses these days are too functional. Bring back dysfunctional. Only Mets teams of my life that were any good were guys were literally brawling at the buffet table and taking swings at each other on planes. Functional clubhouses are overrated. Think Reggie, George and Billy Martin.

I don't know how this idea that he'd sign with the Giants has gained so much steam. How could it be seen as anything other than a big step backwards for him? He hasn't won a championship with the Yankees yet. Signing with the Giants doesn't get him closer to one. It moves him much farther away.

Somewhat agree with the chance of San Fran, but still think there is no way he leaves New York.

He’s a bit of a one-trick pony like Bonds…he hits home runs. His Defense is not atrocious, but certainly not stellar. He’s going to a team with a short porch so he can stay relevant. He’s definitely not going to Fenway unless he wants to alienate NY completely, so New York is the logic.

He would excel in Colorado, but no chance. San Fran is the only other reasonable big city choice that would pay for a Bonds type for ticket sales.

Throw him in Comerica Field and he drops to maybe 40ish homers at best. My bet is on staying or a 15% chance of Giants.

The only rationale I’ve heard for him signing with the Giants is that they’re his “hometown” team. Judge was drafted by the A’s and didn’t sign. Has there been any indication his perspective on hometown teams changed?

Check out Judge's Home/Road splits. Being a right handed hitter in Yankee Stadium didn't help him in the slightest.

Judge didn't hit any cheapies. I believe he projected for 61 HR's based on the average dimensions of all major league parks and his HR distances and placements.

Now if you made the same argument about Anthony Rizzo, I'd be more inclined to agree with you. ;)

Reggie of course was the first thing that came to my mind. Add Munson to that mix too.

If the Yankees do lose him, it's going to go back to Cashman making the negotiations with him public last year.

While I thought it was a fair offer at the time given Judge's age and injury history, it was in poor taste for Cashman to take it public, and it could very well bite him in the ass after Judge's "See, I told you so" season he just had.

At this point, I'm not even sure money's going to be the main motivator with Judge. At a certain point hundreds of millions of dollars, is hundreds of millions of dollars, no matter the variance of top and bottom offers. Even if the Yankees offered him less then somebody else, the endorsement opportunities are obviously more lucrative playing for New York.

It might just come down to the cliche of "Respect".

Personally, with his size and injury history, he’s not likely to be a good sign at high in the sky pricing. Whoever signs him will probably be the loser, not the winner. That said, that he broke the marquee Yankee record kind of forces the Yankees politically to offer him an insane contract to retain. If he leaves NY it’s because he wants to leave NY.

Easy for me to say, but if I had a job offer for $250,000,000 and another for, say, $350,000,000 I would make the choice based on which one I liked more and afforded what I considered the better quality of life. When the sums get these big, the money only matters as an ego measuring contest. Either is enough for me, my family, and my pals to all live in ease for the rest of our natural lives.

I get the injury concern but is it THAT much of a concern?

Even with the threat of injury you can't ignore what you get when he's on the field. Over his shortened seasons between 2018 and 2020 he played 242 games and put up an OPS+ of 146.

His injury risks may remove him from the field for stretches at a time, but nothing has really marred his performance.

this will make the off season interesting.
Injury vs performance
Age vs Years of Contract
Deep Pockets of LA and San Fran vs Yankees
Last Contract process and the public info of the contract (respect vs non issue)

Hopefully he stays

But it will be interesting either way

I am not a fan of indiscriminate brawling in baseball, but sort of bothers me that the Mets had so many guys hit by pitches this year and not one guy charged the mound. Not once. I know the game has changed a lot, but I would have liked to have seen a little more fire. I suspect after Kevin Mitchell would have gotten hit 4 or 5 times there might have been a little pay back.

You could almost always count on Pedro to pay it back whenever a Red Sox player was hit if there was any question of inentinality. Now guys are probably just calculating the impact quotient of the HBP based on the velocity of the ball and the batter's BMI.

+1 agree
Not like the old days with charging the mound or your teams pitcher throwing at or behind the others teams best player as retaliation

I don't know that calling Bonds a "one-trick pony" is accurate. He hit .298 for his career, walked more than anyone in history, won 8 gold gloves, and stole over 500 bases in his career.

If Bonds was a one trick pony, then everyone in baseball history is. Gold Glove defense, excellent to great contact/on base, Top 50 all time in steals. What do people want to not be a one trick pony?

+1 and to say otherwise is just crazy.

I just read that Rizzo opted out. That does not bode well...

Why though? How are they related? I don't feel like Judge resigning would in any way depend on where Rizzo is playing next year.

Looks like Rizzo basically had a one year contract plus a 1 year player opt-in/out.

He didn't have a great year, but he had a good enough year he could at least command a two year contract from either the Yankees or somebody else, so it was pretty inevitable he'd opt out. Might be his last chance for a multiple year contract.

Rizzo probably wants another shot at a World Series, thus best to go elsewhere.

So whaddya' think. Angels. 9 year-contract.

Worked out for Anthony Rendon.

Not sure I get the comparison. Machado signed his massive deal at 26 and has never missed much time due to injury (and he has produced up to what any reasonable person should have been expecting when he signed)

This is simultaneously hilarious and saddening.

Apologies, I kept that comment too brief and it was a bad comparison. I was thinking at the end of his time with the giants and his career when it was a bit of a home run watch. Admittedly, it was a crap comparison…just had giants on the mind.

I completely dislike Bonds, but he is correctly as good as stated.

I think those days are gone sadly. All the leagues have cracked down so much that it took the fire out of them. That and fighting is all but gone in youth leagues and college so those coming up will lose the ability to play with suspensions if they do.

What the sports world needs now is more Bob Probert and less pearl clutching, lol.

At the end, Bonds was certainly no longer even a passable defender or a baserunner. He still had the batting eye based on walk totals, and of course the HR power.