The Aaron Judge free agency saga dragged on for quite some time, but finally came to a conclusion when Judge decided to re-sign with the New York Yankees on a massive nine-year, $360 million deal. The Yankees had been working hard to convince Judge to stay in New York, and they ultimately were successful in their efforts to keep their franchise player, which proved to be quite a relief for manager Aaron Boone.
Judge's impact for the Yanks in the 2022 season was hard to overstate, and losing him in free agency would have been catastrophic. A false report that came out on Tuesday night saying Judge was signing with the San Francisco Giants certainly caused the Yankees and their fans some stress, but now that Judge is officially back, Boone sounded relieved that the battle was over and Judge had decided to stay.
“Aaron Boone on Aaron Judge: ‘Yesterday was a long tough day in a lot of ways. …I was concerned.’”
It's not exactly hard to see why this is the case for Boone. Judge is such an important piece of the puzzle for the Yankees, and replacing him would have been a nearly impossible task to achieve. Re-signing Judge means that New York's task of improving their current roster becomes far easier this offseason.
There have certainly been a lot of relieved Yankees fans this morning thanks to Judge re-signing, and it sounds like Boone is part of that crowd. But the work doesn't stop now that Judge has been locked up on a long-term deal, as New York now has to figure out how to build a World Series contender around him. Otherwise, this deal will ultimately mean nothing.
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