Latest Aaron Judge update proves Yankees offer wasn’t good enough

The New York Yankees rightfully want to re-sign slugger Aaron Judge, but the latest update proves they’re going to have to do more to keep him.

The Yankees will possibly lose their star Aaron Judge this offseason as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription required) shared that Judge’s contract will likely be for nine years. The exact offer the Yankees put out to Judge is unknown, but it was reportedly “in the neighborhood of eight years and $300 million.”

The San Francisco Giants have come ready to spend this offseason, and they made it very clear that if they miss out on signing Judge, it won’t be because of money. The Giants haven’t made an offer yet to Judge, but they’ve met with him and have a very real chance of landing him.

While it’s risky to make a long-term deal with Judge considering he’s 30 years old and most players begin to decline in performance through their 30s, it’s a risk many teams see as worth taking since he had such an explosive season in 2022.

If adding an extra year and a little bit of money to one-up the Yankees offer is what the Giants or any other team have to do to land him, then it’s not so bad of a plan and some team is very likely to do it. However, it’s unclear if the Yankees would bid back or not.

The Yankees may be out-bid from contract length

Offering Judge eight years is generous, and offering him nine years is pushing the envelope. It would be a stretch for any team to offer him 10 years as it would push him to 40 years old at the end, so it doesn’t seem like a likely move from the Yankees if a team bounces back with a nine-year offer.

This would certainly hurt the Yankees next season as they have a lot of room for improvement, and Judge was hands-down the most impactful player in the regular season. He was one of the best in the league as he led in many important statistical categories, including WAR (10.6), on-base percentage (.425), slugging percentage (.686) and OPS (1.111), to name a few.

He was also in the Triple Crown conversation, one of the most prestigious achievements in baseball, and he broke the 61-year-old single season home run record with 62 homers this season.

Though it’s risky to sign him to a long-term contract, he appears to be good for quite a few more years and the Yankees just simply didn’t offer him what he could acquire.