Aaron Judge took home the MVP award on Thursday night, and afterwards, spoke on his free agency and his talks with owner Hal Steinbrenner, who said the two have had multiple conversations since the end of the season that were “very positive.”
“I’m not going to get too much into what Hal and I spoke about or [what] moved the needle or not,” Judge said. “I thought it was a good sign that he reached out and wanted to sit down one on one and wanted to get a chance to talk. I thought that was a great sign.”
As for what Judge is looking for in free agency, aside from what he feels will be his worth in terms of a contract, will be a chance to win a title, which the Yankees have continued to fall short of since Judge arrived, but have been close at times.
“For me, it’s, I want to win,” Judge said. “I’ve come pretty close with the Yankees. We’ve been one game away from a World Series to getting kicked out in the Wild Card to the ALCS and the ALDS. All around the board. The most important thing is that I want to be in a winning culture and be on a team that’s committed to winning. Not only for the remainder of my playing career but I want a legacy to kind of live on within an organization. So, first and foremost, it’s just about being in winning culture and a winning future.”
Judge’s free agency is expected to last a while, as multiple teams will likely bring him in to make their pitches, and Judge will likely take in the full experience for what could be his only time experiencing free agency. So he won’t give any estimate as to when a decision could be made.
“For me, this process, I don’t know how fast it’s going to go or how slow it’s going to go,” Judge said. “But definitely teams that we talked to, if we’re going to build a winning team, if I can get myself out of the way so that we can kind of move on and add some more pieces to build teams up, I think that’s always an advantage for wherever I go. So, I think, once you kind of get into it, it might move fast.”
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