Giants contract offer to Aaron Judge is revealed, and it’s enormous

The San Francisco Giants are prepared to offer Aaron Judge a massive contract and entice the former Yankees slugger to head back to the West Coast.

The San Francisco Giants are reportedly ready to open their checkbook wide in an attempt to bring Aaron Judge back home.

The Giants have offered the free agent outfielder a contract worth around $360 million, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reported on Tuesday. That would be the biggest free agent deal in Major League history and trail only the $426.5 million the Angels gave Mike Trout in a 12-year extension in 2019, and the $365 million, 12-year extension Mookie Betts signed with the Dodgers in 2020.

The deal, which would be for around nine years, would pay Judge about $40 million per season, making him the highest-paid position player in the league. Entering his age 31 season in 2023, the contract will also likely run through the rest of his career.

Whether Judge accepts it, or decides to return to the New York Yankees, is another matter. The Giants hope his ties to the area are a determining factor. Judge grew up in Linden, California, about 75 miles from San Francisco. He played his college baseball at Fresno State before being drafted by the Yankees in 2013. He recently told TIME Magazine in a profile naming him the 2022 “Athlete of the Year” that he always envisioned playing for the team he grew up rooting for.

Aaron Judge always dreamt of playing for the Giants

“I said, in 10 years, I’ll be married to Sam and playing for the San Francisco Giants. I was like, ‘That’d better not get out,” he told Sean Gregory.

Judge lived up to the first part of that prediction, marrying longtime girlfriend Samantha Bracksieck last December. He now has the chance he dreamed of, putting on the uniform of his childhood team. Judge spent the Thanksgiving weekend visiting the Giants, during which he met with more than 30 members of the organization.

The Yankees won’t let Judge get away easy. He’s coming off hitting an American League record 62 home runs in 2022. He’s the face of the franchise and one of the top sluggers to ever don the iconic Yankee pinstripes.

The decision is up to Judge: stay in New York or head home. The Giants, with their massive deal on the table, are hoping to make that decision a little easier.