Aaron Judge has made his free agency decision.
Judge re-signed with the New York Yankees on Wednesday morning. The 2022 American League MVP opted to stay in The Bronx after an array of suitors pursued him this offseason. Jon Morosi of MLB Network first reported the news of Judge’s re-signing.
Terms of the deal later followed. MLB insider Ken Rosenthal reported on the contract, which was a whopper. Rosenthal tweeted, “Source confirms: Aaron Judge in agreement with Yankees, nine years, $360M.”
Tuesday had been a chaotic day in the Aaron Judge sweepstakes. It looked for a minute like he would sign with the San Francisco Giants. Well, Arson Judge might have, we’ll never know. But the idea appeared to gain steam. It was not to be though, as Judge will stay with the team he’s always played with.
This is a big move for the Yankees, who basically needed to keep the reigning AL MVP or risk fan backlash. The prolific outfielder is now set to be in New York for the next nine seasons. He got the ninth year that he wanted and Rosenthal’s prediction of that ninth year came true.
The MLB world reacted to the news as it broke.
So the Yankees will wind up paying Aaron Judge $146.5M more than they had offered him at the beginning of the year.
Just to put that in perspective, that’s more than the Guardians will pay Jose Ramirez over the life of his extension ($141M).
— Anthony Castrovince (@castrovince) December 7, 2022