Aaron Judge's two biggest suitors have been revealed to be the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants, with his next destination odds seemingly teetering somewhere around 50 percent. Not according to one rival executive, who poured cold water on a Giants' Judge free agency signing when speaking to the New York Post's Jon Heyman, per the latest rumors.
“He’s going to leave the greatest market to go across country to a team where it’s hard to hit homers? Come on.”
This MLB executive clearly doubts that Aaron Judge, who just broke the American League's single-season home run record with the benefit of playing in the homer-happy Yankee Stadium, will leave such an environment for the Giants.
Not only because of the “greatest market” that is New York, but also because of the fact that it's “hard to hit homers” in San Francisco.
Per Statcast's Park Factor, Yankee Stadium ranked inside the top-10 for home runs. Meanwhile, the Giants' home ballpark, Oracle Park, ranked 27th out of 30 MLB teams.
Judge, who clubbed an American League- and franchise-record 62 long balls in the regular season, might not enjoy swinging for the fences as much at Oracle.
Some of those rocket, line drive home runs he hit with the Yankees might turn into off-the-wall doubles with the Giants.
Maybe Judge doesn't care. Maybe he's so bothered by the Yankees' handling of his contract situation last spring that any offer from the Giants that surpasses New York's will be good enough.
But if this truly is a 50/50 race for his services, one has to think that the home run factors at each park will play a role in Aaron Judge's decision.
Follow Us
Subscribe