With just two more home runs, Aaron Judge will set a new home run record for both the New York Yankees and the American League. He is well on his way to taking home the AL MVP award and potentially the Triple Crown.
As soon as this season ends, Yankees fans' feelings will take a nosedive. The feelings of awe watching No. 99 hit dingers like clockwork will turn into anxiety over whether he remains in pinstripes. Judge will be a free agent after failing to agree to a contract extension with New York. Although he wants to stay in The Bronx, he left the possibility of finding a new ballpark to call home open.
New York must immediately regret not offering Judge more money this past offseason. Their best offer was a seven-year deal worth $213 million. Judge sought nine years and more than the $30.5M AAV the team offered, as Brendan Kuty of NJ.com reported in April. Was a contract for, say, nine years worth around $280 million for one of the best players in the game that bad? Apparently, it was, as New York wasn't willing to go beyond the aforementioned seven years and $213 million.
Agreeing to an extension with Judge was, admittedly, somewhat tough given his age and history of injuries. This season marks only the third time in a seven-year career that Judge has played in at least 75 percent of the regular season and he is already 30 years old. Projecting his future, at least before this season, likely featured some pessimism about how much availability he would have left.
The concerns around a Judge extension should have been immediately quelled upon remembering what he means to the franchise. He was an MVP candidate in his first season and has continued to play at an All-Star level. This season, he has a triple slash of .317/.421/.705 with 169 hits, 125 runs, 60 home runs, 128 RBI, and 94 walks while keeping his strikeout rate low (compared to his career average) and playing strong defense in the outfield, including in center field.
Whether the Yankees have looked like world beaters or a team that could barely put up a fight with a Triple-A club, Judge has been nothing short of extraordinary. Now that he is officially in peak Babe Ruth territory for home runs, the contract offer looks even sillier, if not disrespectful. No one could have foreseen a season of this magnitude but history will remember that the Yankees offered the guy who had one of the greatest seasons in the history of baseball a contract that wouldn't even crack the top 15 in total contract value.
The Yankees franchise showed unimaginable levels of cheapness with Judge's contract negotiations. The fact that New York has one of the highest payrolls in the league can hardly be used as a counterargument when that figure doesn't even include their best player. Those big pockets scarcely mean a thing when they weren't used to lock down the face of the franchise in the final year of a contract.
Crying poor in MLB, an obvious pay-to-win league, is shameful for any owner. This is especially the case for the freaking New York Yankees, the franchise most associated with success beyond comparison. They've shown a willingness to pay up for stars like Giancarlo Stanton and Gerrit Cole. But when it came to their homegrown superstar, the Evil Empire shuddered in fear and tried to get cute with it instead of just throwing Judge a big payday.
What did the Yankees truly plan to do after failing to pony up the money for Aaron Judge? The best case scenario for them financially was for Judge to have a poor and/or injury-riddled season and for him to reluctantly accept the original offer. Since he has far exceeded the front office's original offer, what now? Will they finally pay up now that they have no other option? Technically, there is the option of letting him test the open market, but that would be a code-red situation.
If the Yankees lose Judge, it will be the beginning of the end of the team's 30-year streak of winning seasons. The team can't contend for a World Series without him and if they won't even pay him what he's worth, what will other star free agents think of them? They better hope Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez and their other prospects are gems. Without Judge, the team lacks the consistency and firepower to remain a great team.
Unless New York is playing six-dimensional chess and chose to lowball Judge to inspire his otherworldly season, it's safe to say they made a big mistake this offseason. Fortunately, they can still rectify it by giving Judge the contract extension he deserves. The Yankees may think the original offer they extended to Aaron Judge was pricy but what they truly cannot afford is to lose him for good.
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