How Jacob deGrom contract could affect Aaron Judge deal, especially with Giants
By Mark Powell
The Texas Rangers backed up a brinks truck for Jacob deGrom. What does this mean for Aaron Judge’s market, especially with the Giants?
Just two years ago, MLB owners cried poor, bringing the free-agent market to a halt. These days, matters are far different.
On Friday night, the Texas Rangers signed 34-year-old Jacob deGrom to a five-year, $185 million contract that could increase in value with various incentives. deGrom, forever an injury risk, signed that record offer in record timing, thus leaving his previous team, the New York Mets, metaphorically in the dust.
If deGrom can secure that kind of contract, what does it say about Aaron Judge’s market? Judge entered the offseason as the near-universal best player available.
https://t.co/U9z7iJ2tO3 If a desperate team was willing to pay a 34-yr-old who has hardly played the last 2 yrs and exudes no leadership skills 5/$185M, what might a desperate team (SFG) pay a 30 yr old leader (Judge) who has been healthy and excelled the last 2 yrs?
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 3, 2022
Giants: Aaron Judge’s market price just went up
The Yankees remain favored to bring Judge back into the fold. In order to change his mind, the two advantages the San Francisco Giants have is familiarity (Judge grew up in northern California) and money.
New York already made Judge an offer for seven years and $300 million. It was an astounding contract that Judge likely would’ve signed last offseason. Unfortunately for the Yankees, Judge is well aware of his value after an AL MVP campaign in which he broke Roger Maris’ home run record.
That awareness went way up on Friday, with an older, oft-injured deGrom signing a larger AAV than most expected. The Mets offer was reportedly for three years at $40 million AAV. The contract deGrom ended up signing was for more years, and a great annual value.
On paper, Judge should be worth more than deGrom. But this offseason in particular, pitching seems to be at a premium. Even prior to deGrom, back-end rotation pitchers were going for $10 million a pop (see Boyd, Matthew). It’s no wonder that deGrom, a true ace and arguably the best pitcher of his era when healthy, went for far more than expected.
It remains to be seen if that increase is pitching-specific, or market wide. If it’s the latter, you can bet Judge will use that to his advantage.
Next. One team is surprisingly unheard from in the Aaron Judge sweepstakes. dark