Aaron Judge's free agency touched off a flurry of strange reporting from baseball insiders on social media.
On Wednesday morning, soon after the news broke of Judge's re-signing with the Yankees, ESPN insider Buster Olney added yet another bizarre chapter to the situation.
While confirming separate reports of Judge's nine-year, $360 million deal, Olney framed the contract as a "total surrender" by the Yankees.
Granted, the deal represented a massive increase over what the Yankees were reported to have offered Judge during extension talks last offseason.
So, in that sense, the Yankees failed in their apparent bid to lock up Judge on the relative cheap.
But the Yankees are by many accounts the sport's richest franchise, and Judge is its best hitter and coming off an historic season. All of which is to say, Judge was going to command a massive contract whether it was from the Yankees or someone else.
Much to the delight of Yankees fans, it came from the Yankees. In fact, some reports indicated Judge had passed up more lucrative offers to stay with the franchise that drafted him.
Olney's tweet comes only hours after fellow insiders Jon Heyman and Bob Nightengale butchered their own reports on the Judge situation. Heyman apologized for erroneously reporting on Tuesday night that "Arson Judge" was signing with the Giants, while Bob Nightengale seemed to confuse Judge with Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton in a tweet that has since been deleted.
Bob Nightengale and Jon Heyman are having a banner 24 hours on the #sources front pic.twitter.com/Z2xRDI2cn7
— Ethan (@PadresEthan2) December 7, 2022
Needless to say, many fans and journalists didn't appreciate Olney's seemingly biased take on the situation.
Really don't love the phrasing of "total surrender" to describe... a business paying an employee? Whose services were in high demand? https://t.co/ORm9W6PuIH
— Barry Petchesky (@barry) December 7, 2022
"Total surrender." Buster can't help himself from being the biggest management shill around. It's amazing. https://t.co/VQNcyqcjQD
— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) December 7, 2022
Total surrender by the yankees to sign the guy that is probably the only household name in baseball https://t.co/g1LFA3Mt0o
— Nice Pilled Jordan (@SLCLunk) December 7, 2022
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