The New York Yankees are anxiously awaiting the official start of the MLB offseason. After getting swept out of the playoffs by the Houston Astros in the ALCS, the Yankees now have to focus on one thing and one thing only; re-signing Aaron Judge.
After Judge's historic season, in which he set the American League single-season record for home runs with 62, he is now set to hit free agency and command a massive contract. The Yankees put off an extension for Judge for quite some time, and ended up getting burned by his outrageous 2022 campaign. Now they will have to pull off some drastic measures in order to keep him in New York.
The Yankees are going to face some fierce competition from the rest of the league for Judge's services, and it could take some major convincing to keep Judge with the Yankees. Let's take a look at two such drastic measures the Yankees can take in order to ensure that Judge will re-sign with them in free agency this offseason.
2. The Yankees need to give Aaron Judge all the money he wants
The first drastic measure is pretty straightforward. Judge wants to get paid, and if the Yankees want to keep him, they are going to have to give him pretty much whatever sort of contract he wants. When it comes to length, money, and options in the future, New York is at the mercy of Judge's demands.
This is particularly important for a couple of reasons, though. For starters, the competition for Judge's services is going to be very intense. The Yankees obviously want him, but teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants have already made it clear that they will also do whatever it takes to sign Judge.
Quite frankly, Judge's free agency could create a bidding war unlike any other in the MLB. Free agency hasn't even officially opened, but teams are already showing that they will spend whatever it takes to land the star outfielder. If New York wants to land him, they are going to have to spend an outrageous amount of money to do so.
The Yankees also have no real replacement for Judge on their roster. Judge powered their roster to the ALCS this season, and once he went cold, so too did the rest of the team. New York obviously relies on Judge, but their dependence on him was seen pretty clearly in the playoffs once he cooled off.
New York has the inside track when it comes to re-signing Judge since they already know what he's looking for. But they can't afford to let other teams get momentum when it comes to signing Judge. The Yankees need to be aggressive in their pursuit to land Judge from the get go, and the easiest way to do that is to hand him a blank check and have him decide how much he wants to get paid.
1. The Yankees need to give Aaron Judge a say in the construction of the roster
This is the more important measure the Yankees need to take, and it isn't nearly as straightforward. For pretty much Judge's entire tenure with New York, they have been right on the verge of making it to the World Series, but they have never been able to make it to the World Series. If Judge is going to stay, that likely will have to change.
The easiest way to convince a star player that you are going to build a championship roster around them is to give that player a say in the roster building process. We have seen in other sports, where legends such as Tom Brady in the NFL or LeBron James in the NBA have a say in how their teams build their roster. Considering how successful this strategy has been elsewhere, it is something the Yankees should consider giving to Judge.
New York clearly has some flaws that need fixing, and who would know what those flaws are better than the players? Judge knows that he isn't part of the problem, so why not at least give him a platform to voice his opinions on the roster to the front office? It could be a unique part of his deal that other teams aren't offering to him.
This doesn't mean that Judge would immediately replace Brian Cashman as the team's general manager, but allowing Judge to identify some areas of need or players he thinks would help the Yankees could convince him to re-sign. It may take a lot to re-sign Judge at this point, and this could be a unique way to entice the star outfielder to commit his future to the Yankees this offseason.
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