David Cone has his own experience in navigating free agency, including multiple times with the Yankees, and hasn’t seen a player master the free agent dance better than Aaron Judge did before signing his reported nine-year, $360 million deal to return to New York.
“Ten years, 20 years from now, there will be a course in college on how to handle free agency, an agent’s and a player’s course,” Cone said on his “Toeing the Slab” podcast.
“The agents, you never hear from. Aaron Judge’s agents did a great job here and deserve a lot of credit, but the player himself here was the one that nobody could read, throughout the whole season really.”
Cone had warned Judge through his podcast that he would miss the bright lights of New York if he left, and couldn’t wait to get back to the Big Apple when he joined the Yanks in 1995 after last pitching in Gotham three years earlier with the Mets. But Judge is back, seemingly where he always wanted to be, though he brilliantly let the homecoming narratives fester when it came to a potential interest in signing with the Giants, and traveled to San Francisco to drive up more intrigue, and, in turn, drive up the price.
“He hit 62 home runs and said all the right things, and up until the last minute, nobody, literally nobody outside of his inner circle knew what he was thinking or what he was gonna do,” Cone said.
“From a player’s standpoint, I gotta tip my cap to Aaron Judge. That’s a hard thing to do. I’ve been there, I’ve done it. It’s hard to keep your emotions in check. But Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone, nobody knew anything until the official announcement came out.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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