Contract extension talks between Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees have failed.
Judge set an Opening Day deadline for a new deal to be reached.
Obviously, that deadline was not met, and the Yankees slugger is more than likely going to enter free agency at the end of the 2022 season.
But today, the Yankees offered Judge a pretty big contract extension.
The deal would have been for seven years and worth $213.5 million.
According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, had Judge agreed to the deal, it would have made him the second highest-paid outfielder per annual average salary behind just Mike Trout, who signed a 10-year, $360 million deal back in 2019.
The Aaron Judge 7-year, $213.5 million extension would have made him the second-highest paid outfielder per annual average salary in baseball behind only Mike Trout’s 10-year, $360 million extension
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) April 8, 2022
Judge Wants More
It’s understandable for Judge to want more than what he was offered, but this is a deal that would have made him the second highest-paid outfielder in all of baseball, at least per annual average salary, as Nightengale points out.
It’s quite a lucrative offer to be quite honest.
Again, it’s understandable for Judge to want more and it is not uncommon for players to ask for such.
But still, turning down $213.5 million is a bit of a surprise.
Of course, this does not mean that extension talks can’t pick up down the road, but it’s more likely that Judge and the Yankees will reach a settlement for this year only in the arbitration process.
It will be interesting to see if Judge ultimately enters the free agent market.
That seems very likely now after extension talks fell through.
We’ll see what happens down the road.
For now, it looks more likely that the two sides will simply settle on a contract for 2022 in the arbitration process.
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