The New York Yankees and Aaron Judge had an opportunity before the season to get a contract extension done, and those talks failed. Now, negotiations are tabled until the offseason, and the ramifications of that makes Alex Rodriguez uncertain of Judge's future in The Bronx.
Judge is having an incredible season for a stellar Yankees team after betting on himself and turning down New York’s extension offer. Because he doesn’t want to talk contract until after the season, the Yankees will be competing with 29 other teams for his services.
With the season he’s having, that means there will be no shortage of teams throwing a ton of cash at Judge this winter. And in an appearance on “The Show: A NY Post Baseball Podcast”, Rodriguez explained why he thinks Judge staying with the Yankees is a coin-flip.
“When you roll the dice, and you turn down $33 (million), 34, whatever that number is is irrelevant, you make a big bet on yourself,” Rodriguez said. “And then you go out and you hit the jackpot and you’re playing at an all-time career high, so it’s a perfect storm. Once you’ve earned the right to be a free agent … and you have everyone coming after you, (the Yankees are) going to have to ante up to get you because you bet on yourself.
“It’s always fascinating to me when people say it would be a mistake for Aaron not to come back to the Yankees, but how about the Yankees having a guy in the farm system and the big leagues for over nine years and not extending him? To me that’s equally a mistake by the New York Yankees.”
Considering Judge’s market value prior to the season, the Yankees did give him a largely fair offer. Much of the criticism of Judge’s turning down of the contract was that he rejected something fair when he has an injury history and such a deal would take him into his declining years.
However, it does bear some similarities to the broken down contract talks between the Atlanta Braves and franchise legend Freddie Freeman. There were myriad reasons that didn’t work out, but Rodriguez thinks that should be a cautionary tale for the Judge situation.
"I think this marriage should happen, and I think we should all learn from what happened with the Braves and Freeman,” Rodriguez said. “Once you become a free agent, the agent gets a lot of power and the player goes in hiding. Once the season is over, whether it’s the World Series or the ALCS or whatever it is, the Yankees will not be able to get ahold of Aaron Judge. In negotiations, when you cut communications that always scares me. That’s why I think it’s a 50-50 (chance), because when you cut negotiations a lot can be lost in translation."
Save for maybe the Mets, the Yankees are better positioned than anyone to offer Judge a market value contract (or richer) in free agency. But now they’ll probably have to enter a bidding war, and if nothing else that will make keeping the franchise cornerstone more difficult and expensive.
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