Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees has lots to smile about. Here is Judge in the Yankees dugout on Wed Oct 5, 2022 in Arlington. The Yankees host the Cleveland Guardians at Yankee Stadium in New York for game 1 of the ALDS Tue Oct 11, 2022 (AP News photo)
Why Aaron Judge will stay a Yankee
That’s Amaury News and Commentary
By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez
Aaron Judge will be named the MVP of the American League. He had one of the most remarkable seasons ever for a player in the major leagues. Ending with a new American League record of 62 home runs and without any doubt the most valuable of all players on his team.
Judge was hitting throughout the whole season when his teammates were also hitting early in the season and later when the Yankees struggle to score runs. He was the only Yankee hitting the ball and driving in runs.
Brian Cashman, the Yankee’s General Manager on behalf of the Yankee ownership, offered Judge a 7-year deal worth $213.5 million, prior to the start of the 2022 season. Judge did not swing at it. This past June, the Yankees and Judge agreed to a one year (2022) deal, signed for $19 million just to play this season and avoid arbitration.
Now that Judge established the new AL record, his price has skyrocketed to be much more than the $213 million (peanuts contract) that the Yankees originally offered him. We are looking at minimum of between $300 to $400 million, to start, for his services in a multi-year deal.
There are rumors that some teams will go after Aaron Judge this off season, among those mentioned are the San Francisco Giants. Judge was born in the town of Linden in San Joaquin county, a small town of around 1,700 residents, some 95 miles from San Francisco, a two hour drive.
The Giants haven’t had a real slugger since the days of Barry Bonds, and Judge would be a great improvement for the Giants, or in the middle of other teams lineups.
However, it makes all the sense in the world to expect the Yankees to retain Aaron Judge. The storied franchise now can claim how they got to 62 home runs, after all it was Babe Ruth who originally established the record of 60 in 1927, to be broken by another Yankee, Roger Maris 61 home runs in 1961 and yet to be broken again with another Yankee, this time Aaron Judge, this season 2022 with 62.
All three Yankees! It sounds so good and rhythmic that it could be written, and probably will, into a song. I doubt the Yankees want to break that chain.
The New York Yankees can now offer Aaron Judge the money he wants in order for him to end his career as a Yankee, the only team he has played for. Judge will make the Yankees all the money and then some, to easily give him that great contract, marketing, merchandise, publicity and prestige plus.
The Yankees in my opinion offer Judge a better opportunity to be in a World Series than the San Francisco Giants. Why? Because they are the Yankees! They spend all the money and each and every year they have only one goal, to win the World Series, and they have won 27 of them.
The Yankees won the AL east, and this Tuesday. the 11th will host the Cleveland Guardians, who won the AL Central Division, at Yankee Stadium for the ALDS best of five.
Aaron Judge led the Major Leagues in runs scored with 133 in home runs with 62, runs-batted-in 131, on-base percentage .425, slugging percentage, total gases, led in walks with 111. Was second in the American League in batting average with .311, missing the Triple Crown by six points.
It was the Minnesota Twins Luis Arraez who won the batting crown in the American League with a .316 average. Without Arraez winning the batting title, Aaron Judge would have been the first man to win the Triple Crown since Miguel Cabrera (Detroit) in 2012.
“Pot of Gold awaits Aaron Judge, it’s yet to be determined how much it weighs, but it’s a pot of gold, no doubt about it” -Yankees GM, Brian Cashman.
Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
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