Prior to the start of the 2022 regular season, Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees were in the midst of negotiating a contract extension, with Judge having given the Yankees a deadline of Opening Day to reach a deal.
That deadline was not met, and the two sides have still yet to reach an agreement.
Now, it’s looking like Judge is going to test the free agent market after the season.
But Judge was just betting on himself to see if he could perform up to his potential and possibly get the best offers possible.
ESPN’s Buster Olney tweeted about Judge’s decision and explained why Judge might the right call.
Aaron Judge's bet on himself, updated: He is currently on pace to finish the season with…
135 runs
32 doubles
63 homers
135 RBI
185 hits
68 walks
He's got a slash line of .315/.384/.692.— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) May 18, 2022
Judgement Day Has Come
If you just look at the stats, you can see that Judge was correct to make the decision that he did.
He’s on pace for a crazy finish, as noted by Olney.
He looks to be healthy and confident and performing up to his potential, which is exactly what we saw out of him in his rookie campaign of 2017.
If he keeps this up, he’s sure to get some pretty lucrative offers from teams interested in trying to sign him.
The Yankees will be forced to open up their pocketbooks to try and keep him if he stays healthy and hot, as will any team trying to sign him when the time comes for him to enter free agency.
Judge is sure to garner a ton of interest once the season is over.
He very well could finish with some of the numbers Olney is projecting.
He’s proving what kind of player he can be when he’s healthy and is putting the baseball world on notice.
Leave a Reply