Aaron Judge breaks San Francisco hearts, reveals just how close Arson came to being a Giant

The San Francisco Giants had their hearts ripped out during the 2022-23 offseason when they fell just short of signing Aaron Judge. Judge of course went back to the New York Yankees, but not before Jon Heyman tweeted that a deal with the Giants was close and misspelled his name.

The name "Arson Judge" still permeates through the city of San Francisco. It's not a pleasant memory for Giants fans. Things got even worse over the weekend when Judge powered the Yankees to a three-game sweep over the Giants at Oracle Park.

According to Judge, he was quite close to signing with the Giants.

"It was close," the Yankees' slugger said, h/t The Athletic. "I've said it. It was a while ago, but it was pretty close. They have a great organization here, great team, great pitching staff, great young guys coming up. We just ended up going to New York."

Aaron Judge reveals how close he came to signing with Giants

Giants fans were forced to revisit a painful chapter in their history over the weekend. And watching Judge make himself right at home in San Francisco only added salt to the wound.

Judge grew up in the Bay Area and was a Giants fan as a child, so there was always a chance, even if the Yankees were going to outbid them in the end. It came down to the wire, and the Giants were very close to signing him. But outbidding the Yankees is a tough task, one that few organizations have been able to complete.

The course of history would have been altered significantly had Judge chosen his hometown team over the Yankees. San Francisco might have been able to accelerate their process of building a contending team.

But for just a moment, Giants fans thought the team had found their centerpiece. To make matters worse, they barely missed out on Carlos Correa as well.

Judge hit two home runs in the series opener and followed it up with another homer in the second game and two hits in the finale. In the end, the Yankees swept the Giants and gave them a painful reminder of what could have been if he had chosen San Francisco instead of New York.

San Francisco came close, but it was to no avail as the Yankees pivoted and made the veteran slugger and former MVP a much better offer to stay in the Bronx.