SAN DIEGO (AP) — Aaron Judge has issued his ruling: The court is still in session in the Bronx.
Judge stays with the New York Yankees on a nine-year, $360 million contract, according to a person familiar with the biggest free agent deal in baseball history.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on condition of anonymity because the AL MVP’s contract had not been publicly announced.
New York general manager Brian Cashman declined to confirm the deal. But he said he was “optimistic that we’re in a good place,” crediting Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner for the team’s position as he referenced Hal’s late father, George.
“I’ve been here a long time,” said Cashman, who has been the Yankees’ general manager since 1998, “and I know how George Steinbrenner did business, and how he did business, recruiting free agents and retaining free agents, and he was intimately involved. . And I also saw a lot of that in this process.”
Cashman said he didn’t get any sleep Tuesday night. He texted Judge, and Hal Steinbrenner and manager Aaron Boone spoke with the slugger on the phone.
“I wanted to talk to him and make sure he knew, certainly, how I felt about him, but also how we felt about him,” Boone said.
Judge, who set an AL record 62 home runs last season, will earn $40 million per year, the highest average annual pay for a position player. The contract only follows Mike Trout’s $426.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels and Mookie Betts’ $365 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the largest deal in baseball history. Trout and Betts were already under contract when they signed those deals.
The Yankees made Judge a long-term offer before last season worth $213.5 million over seven years from 2023-29. But the outfielder turned him down in the hours leading up to Opening Day in April.
The 6-foot-7 judge bet on himself and won.
Judge surpassed Roger Maris’s AL home run mark while propelling New York to an AL East title. He, too, tied for the major league lead with 131 RBIs and missed out on the Triple Crown with a .311 batting average.
New York was swept by Houston in the ALCS, but Judge became the Yankees’ first AL MVP since Alex Rodriguez in 2007.
“He’s an incredible player and an incredible person who certainly has the respect of everyone in that room,” Boone said, “and guys look up to him, look up to him.”
By turning down the Yankees’ preseason offer, Judge earned $146.5 million and two more guaranteed seasons. The Northern California native also visited the San Francisco Giants last month, and there are likely more teams monitoring the market for the slugger who turns 31 in April.
With his new long-term deal, Judge could be in line to become New York’s first captain since Derek Jeter retired after the 2014 season. Cashman said Hal Steinbrenner and his family would make any decision on a captain.
“I’m all for anytime they want to make a decision like that, I support that decision 110%,” he said.
There was an erroneous Twitter report Tuesday that Judge was nearing a deal with the Giants, and Boone said it was “a long and difficult day in a lot of ways.”
“I eat that hole in my stomach all day,” Boone said at the winter baseball meetings in San Diego.
The judge’s decision will have a ripple effect on several teams and free agents. His condition delayed at least some of New York’s offseason plans, given the size of the contract, but Cashman made it clear his team would wait patiently while Judge contemplated his options.
In the end, that approach worked.
“The hope is that (Hal Steinbrenner) is the Mariano Rivera of these negotiations and can close something, put us in a great position,” Cashman said. “But I can’t officially say that has happened yet.”
Judge was selected by New York in the first round of the 2013 amateur draft and made his major league debut in 2016, with a home run in his first at-bat.
A year later, he was one of baseball’s rising stars. He hit .284 with 52 home runs and 114 RBIs in 2017, winning the AL Rookie of the Year award. The four-time All-Star has 220 home runs and 497 RBIs in seven major league seasons.
Judge’s median annual deal value trails only New York Mets pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at $43.3 million.
The Mets announced the Verlander deal Wednesday after a person familiar with the move told the AP on Monday that he would earn $86.7 million over two years. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract had not been announced at the time.
Blum reported from Qatar.
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