Aaron Judge got to the double nickel early in Game 1 of the Yankees’ Wednesday doubleheader, just another step towards what’s sure to be a monster free agent contract…somewhere.
See, Boomer & Gio heard Yankees president Randy Levine on a podcast talking about how the Yankees’ negotiations with Judge are a “two-way street” and that Judge “has to want to be a Yankee” at baseline.
Gio found the fact Levine would say that publicly quite interesting.
“It’s something we’ve all been thinking since this started: does Aaron Judge want to be here?” Gio asked. “I think that he probably would’ve signed a bigger deal if it was offered to him prior to the season, but at this point, with the damage done, if the money is similar, does he leave and go to his home state?”
Boomer joked “wait until LIV Baseball starts” when it comes to the money part, but seriously, he knows the ball is now firmly in Judge’s court.
“He has to take it all the way to free agency, because he’s having the year of his life and he’s committed to not signing that official offer,” Boomer said. “He has to get to the point where the Yankees blow him away with an offer, or he gets a lot of offers and maybe it brings him back to the Yankees.”
Levine said the Yankees expect to be “extremely competitive” with Judge’s offer, but Gio noted that the Yankees need to do more than be competitive – and Boomer believes they need to blow him away right away.
“At the beginning of the year, I felt like the offer was fair and the Yankees were trying to thread the needle because Judge was a little older and his arbitration started late,” Boomer said, “but the thing we know watching him is that he made the right decision betting on himself.”
A monster October being added to his already MVP-caliber season would only seal that deal that it’s going to be a battle of who will write the biggest check in Boomer’s eyes – and to him, the Giants are the team to worry about.
“He’s from Fresno, it’s the team he rooted for growing up, and while they’d have to offer him significantly more money because of taxes,” Boomer said, “but I can’t see him going anywhere like Tampa or Miami or Texas, where there’s no state taxes.”
Gio suggested the Mets, which would be a huge coup and keep Judge in New York…and that also led the boys to wonder if legacy is going to take a backseat to money no matter what, as going to the Mets might indicate, and if that’s really the M.O. of athletes everywhere at this point.
“The Giants have legacy and history, they’re his hometown team, and it’s a franchise that knows how to win,” Boomer said.
“They’ve won titles in recent memory, and maybe he just wants to get back to Cali because that’s where he grew up and he loves it,” Gio replied. “That could be a possibility if the money is close. More than ever now, I don’t think that athletes think about legacies nowadays as much as they think about money, their brand, and being comfortable.”
Only one thing is for sure: Aaron Judge has four more weeks to try to hit enough home runs to break Roger Maris’ Yankees franchise and American League record, and all eyes will be on that for now.
Follow WFAN's morning team on Twitter: @7BOOMERESIASON, @GioWFAN, @Alsboringtweets, @JerryRecco, and @WFANMornings
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