3 realistic Aaron Judge backup plans for the San Francisco Giants
By Mark Powell
The San Francisco Giants signed Arson Judge, but not Aaron Judge, the 2022 AL MVP and home run champion. With that in mind, where should they spend their money?
San Francisco already made a move for outfielder Mitch Haniger, but that wasn’t the star free agent they had in mind to bring to the Bay this offseason.
Make no mistake — losing a player of Aaron Judge’s caliber is a huge defeat for a San Francisco organization which poured all of its front office resources into signing him. Judge is a Bay area native. San Francisco was willing to pay him whatever he wanted, and it still wasn’t enough after a late push by the San Diego Padres and, eventually, a turn for the worse with Judge returning to the Yankees, the only organization he’s ever known.
But where should the Giants turn now?
Giants rumors: Pull the trigger on Carlos Correa
San Francisco has been linked to Carlos Correa the last few days, and now that they’ve failed to sign Judge, they can pool most of that money to add Correa on a long-term deal to be the face of the franchise.
Sure, adding Judge and Correa would’ve been nice, but the star shortstop does have World Series experience and, at his best, is arguably the best player at his position in baseball. To be fair to the rest of the field, however, last year was not his best.
Correa slashed 291/.366/.467 last year, and was a stable force at shortstop for the Minnesota Twins. The Twins cannot match the Giants budget, especially now that Judge is out of the picture.