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Aaron Judge Contract Talks Won't Be Discussed Publicly by Yankees, Says GM Cashman
May 11, 2022
New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman isn't going to publicly speak about any potential contract negotiations the team has with Aaron Judge.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Cashman addressed the Yankees' stance on talks with Judge.
"We're not going to talk about it now going forward," Cashman said. "Whether that means we're not going to talk, I'm not saying that, but we're not going to talk about it [publicly]. But he's been great. But that's no surprise, because he is great."
It's unclear if Judge even intends to engage the Yankees in contract talks during the season. He set a self-imposed deadline of Opening Day for the two sides to get a deal done before he tabled discussions until the offseason.
After no deal was reached, Cashman told reporters on April 8 that New York's final offer to Judge was for seven years and $213.5 million.
That deal would have been added to the $17 million New York offered Judge through arbitration for this season, bringing the total value to $230.5 million over eight years. (Judge filed for $21 million in arbitration, per MLB.com's Mark Feinsand.)
Based on current contracts, the $230.5 million in total value would have made Judge the 13th-highest paid player in Major League Baseball. The $28.8 million average annual salary would have ranked 16th among active contracts.
Per Brendan Kuty of NJ.com, Judge was seeking a deal of at least nine years and more than the $30.5 million per season than New York's seven-year extension included.
Judge certainly deserves to be paid like one of the best players in MLB. The three-time All-Star has a .277/.384/.558 slash line with 168 homers in 600 career games. He has two top-four finishes in AL MVP voting.
The Yankees are right to take a somewhat cautious approach in negotiations with Judge. The California native was an older player when he made his MLB debut at the age of 24. He just turned 30 on April 26 and missed a total of 142 regular-season games from 2018-20.
It's a complicated situation for both Judge and the Yankees. Regardless of how things play out between them, it isn't affecting either side's performance in 2022. He leads MLB with 10 homers and the Yankees' 21-8 record is the best mark in baseball.