Aaron Judge free agency rumors: Spotted in San Fran, Giants meeting scheduled

Free agent Aaron Judge has gained the eyes of many teams, and he’s rumored to be beginning his journey by meeting with the Giants on Tuesday.

New York Yankees fans are under unfortunate circumstances with slugger Aaron Judge potentially leaving via the free agency market. Judge has several eyes on him that’ll likely give him massive offers, and he’s officially landed in San Francisco, rumored to be meeting with the Giants on Tuesday.

The Giants are likely contenders to land the star as they have quite a bit of flexibility with their payroll this offseason.

According to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi shared, “From a financial standpoint, there’s nobody that would be out of our capability to kind of meet what we expect the contract demands will be. It’ll just be a question of whether there’s mutual interest and how we put together the best possible team.”

Judge is believed to be after a long-term deal of at least eight years worth over $40 million per year. Given his massive accomplishments, he could likely get that from a team who needs a player like him, such as the Giants.

Judge was in the running for a Triple Crown after a historic season in 2022, and though he didn’t end up earning it, it’s still a huge deal to be in the talks of one as it’s one of the rarest accomplishments in MLB.

He also broke the AL single-season home run record set 61 years ago and led the league in several stats, including WAR (10.6), on-base percentage (.425), slugging percentage (.686), OPS (1.111), runs (133), total bases (391) and homers (62), to name just a few.

The Giants need someone like Aaron Judge

The Giants aren’t a bad team. They’ve gone through some retooling over the past few years, but they’re in a competitive division with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are notoriously known for spending on big players, and the San Diego Padres, who’ve also undergone successful talent acquisition over the past few years.

San Francisco’s development just wasn’t enough to compare this season as they finished the regular season at .500 but still missed the playoffs. In 2021, they won the division just one game ahead of the Dodgers and automatically went to the NLDS, but they didn’t have any success there.

They have potential, but they need someone incredible to stand out against their division competitors. The Dodgers have stars like Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts. The Padres have stars like Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Joe Musgrove and Juan Soto.

The Giants, on the other hand, don’t necessarily have any stars. One of their best hitters is Joc Pederson, who slashed .274/.353/.521 for an OPS of .874 last season. He’s undoubtedly a great player that’s helping the team move in the right direction, but someone of Judge’s caliber would certainly make them competitive with the Dodgers and the Padres.

They’ve expressed they have the money to invest, and if they want to move closer to postseason success, offering Judge what he’s looking for would be a wise move.