Giants using obvious tactic to lure Aaron Judge to San Francisco

Former New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge reportedly met with the Giants on Tuesday, and they may know exactly how to sway him to San Francisco.

Many eyes are on Aaron Judge as he’s officially hit the free agency market. He’s already reportedly met with one team, the San Francisco Giants,to explore what they may have to offer him.

The meetings with the Giants seem to be far from over, and the team will likely play on his relationship with the Bay area to drive sentimentality as a factor.

Judge was born in Sacramento, California and grew up in Linden, California, just under two hours away from San Francisco. He may have made history with the New York Yankees as he broke the 61-year-old single-season home run record, but he grew up as a Giants fan, leaving a special place in his heart for them.

Of course, sentimentality isn’t enough to convince him, but it is a helpful factor. After all, this is business and he needs to go to a team that’ll pay him what he’s worth. Luckily, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi is confident that ‘nobody is out of their budget.’

Giants are confident in being able to pay Aaron Judge

Zaidi, at this point, is looking for mutual interest more than anything in a Judge signing.

According to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, agent Leigh Steinberg thinks Judge could go for as much as $500 million over a 10-year deal. Considering his achievements this season, that certainly seems realistic. He 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), homers (62), the list goes on.

This was hands down his best season, but he’s consistently performed nearly as well every season. He’s worthy of a massive deal, and with some of their own star players in the free agency market, such as Joc Pederson and Carlos Rodon, they may have just enough payroll cleared for Judge.

The Giants need to undergo development to have a chance in their competitive division against the Los Angeles Dodgers and the up-and-coming San Diego Padres, and Judge could certainly help give them the extra push they need.

The Giants have the advantage of being able to play on his emotions, too, and it continuously seems more likely that Judge will become a Giant.