Should the Yankees sign Aaron Judge to a long-term extension? Joel Sherman of the New York Post isn’t sure, noting that Judge already has a significant injury history, is already under team control through his age-30 season, and how the Yankees’ financial situation will be impacted in the post-coronavirus baseball world. There’s also the fact that the Yankees have generally shied away from contract extensions since Hal Steinbrenner took over the team, and the two players whose deals were most recently extended (Aaron Hicks and Luis Severino) have battled injuries since inking those new contracts. Judge is in the first of his three arbitration-eligible seasons, and back in January agreed to an $8.5MM deal for the 2020 season.
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They should sign him, no question.
10/450!
20 year – 1 billion…….and have him play until age 47.
NYY can add Judge to there list of DHs
Stanton
Judge
Andujar
…..
……
Anything short of five or six DHs and the Yankees would be on the lookout for more
Sadly, economic realities combined with Judge’s injury history — including his iffy availability for 2020 — have eliminated any chance of Judge landing a long term big money deal. In fact, with the new reality and the chance that crowds will be minimal through at least 2021, the player who will lose the most is Torres, who should already have his arbitration years bought out. Moving forward, the Stanton and Hicks contracts will prove over time to be albatrosses, and will prevent the Yankees from crafting the wisest deal with Torres.
Don’t forget Clint Frazier as another DH on the Yankee 40 man roster.
Sanchez also
torres will be fine, he will get a big money deal at some point.
They did sign Cano to a extension and that was great but they normally wait till a player is a FA for some reason
What for? He’s already under team control into his 30s and hasn’t been able to stay healthy in his 20s. Get what you can out of him for as little as possible then move on. THAT’S good business.
Johndietz – spot on …..keep him until free agency and let him produce what he can while not hurt, then let him go or the NY will end up with another Ellsbury.
Exactly. Most players only get worse when they hit the 30s, especially big boys like Judge. Mix that in with his injuries and that’s a guy that will fizzle out before he’s 35. Yankee fans won’t want him AND Stanton both on the DH for the majority of the 2020s.
I wouldn’t sign him until they have to. He’s had one full healthy season so far. Some of the injuries may be fluky yes, but he has to prove more he can stay on the field. He’s had oblique and shoulder issues, and those are not fluke. He’s a bigger body that may not age well.
I have a feeling an Aaron Judge extension for the Yanks will be as regretful as the Ryan Howard extension for the Phillies.
this pandemic came at just the right time for baseball to clean house of any of its honest community members. scouts, umpires, low level MiLB team owners, etc. it all just played right into their hands. granted, dont count tour chickens until they hatch, but it would be a real shame to see these teams cry poor when they make so much money. even these small market teams could keep paying their employees for at least a few years and not go under. the potential claims of financial hardship are all a joke when you’re in such a strong trust and have such a large cushion of cash.
They shouldn’t be in any rush to extend judge. He is a great player and seems to be a good dude, but his injury history is concerning and he hasn’t been able to stay on the field the last couple years. Let him play out his arbitration years and sign him at the end of that if he has performed. Even then, he’ll be 30 and I doubt there are many comparable players to get an idea how his body will age.
Seriously, Judge is unbelievably popular in NY, maybe more than Mookie was in Boston. Judge will be the ultimate test of the Yankee’s recent discipline. He is obviously too risky for a big contract that goes into even his early thirties but are they willing to face the ire of the fans and let him walk or better yet, trade him before he completely falls apart?
Nope, dont extend him till he proves he can play 2 seasons straight healthy-
Negatives far outweigh the positives here
Love the player but throwing money at him right now is just showing puppy love, I see more Bulldog in Cashman
“Negatives far outweigh the positives”. LOL. Sure the Yankees shouldn’t be in a rush to extend him but to say he is a liability is beyond ridiculous.
Liability?
All depends how long the contract extension is
Negatives far outweigh positives. Thats called a liability.
Pertaining to an extension-
Again Love the player ,but theres no need to throw money at him now, you do realize that the Yankees can sit on this for awhile right with zero ramifications right?
Thats a perfectly logical angle, one they will probably take in the end, I have no clue where you are attempting to go with “liability”-
I think he is referring to the negatives of a contract extension, not the negatives of Judge the player.
Judge only had one good season. An extension would be a terrible idea.
That’s a bit of a stretch.
He’s had one legitimate MVP contention level season and 2 good to great seasons (Injury shortened they may have been, 2018 and 2019 he managed to put up All-Star level numbers in a shortened season).
I likewise wouldn’t extend him right now because of the injury history (Unless he went way below market value, then you have to take the risk), but “one good season” is just wrong. To put his worst full season in context: he put up a higher WAR last year in 102 games than any one Royal put up at all.. To put an even deeper context to it, his 102 game WAR total last year (Again, his worst full season so far), he put up a higher WAR than literally any batter on the 2015 Championship Royals team except for Cain.
Hicks sucks. So overrated. For starters, .236 career average. Laughable
Judge has had 1 great season. 2 seasons at 27 HR and 55 RBI and another at 27 HR and 67 RBI? Why would anyone be in a hurry to sign him? He has Dave Kingman written all over him.
You are judging a player in one of the worst ways possible; RBI’s. In those two years you just brought up, he has batted .276/.387/.543. His 146 wRC+ is the 9th highest in baseball in the past 2 years. He has posted a outstanding defensive numbers, He’s also one of only 17 batters since the begining of 2018 to have a .900+ OPS.
But yea, only one good year.
If RBI represents the players around you… shouldnt those numbers be inflated because judge has had great players around him.
Judge also batted 2nd most of the time in 2018 and 2019. In 2017, most of his plate appearances came from the #3 spot and #5 spot. If he batted between 3-5 in 2018 and 2019, he probably would have way more RBI’s.
RBIisalreadyplural
Which are actually really good numbers for a 112 game season and 102 game season.
Miggy cabrera had 59 in 136 games. By far a much worse team around him.
Mike Trout: 102 RBIs per 162 games. Aaron Judge: 101 RBIs per 162 games. If you were to use RBIs as the sole metric, a healthy Judge is 99% as good as Trout.
Position players over 6’5 250 probably don’t age well I’d imagine. Yanks should play it out.
Well what’s “long term”? He’s not getting a 200M+ contract right now, obviously. He could end up getting one if he earns it in the next couple years, but right now he’s injured again, coming off two injury shortened seasons. He would have to stay 100% healthy from here on in, to hope to get that much.
And I doubt he’ll settle for a short extension. He has the arbitration money, and he has significant income from endorsements. So he can take some risks, to try and maximize his career earnings.
But, you know, if he is interested in a reasonable extension, that takes into consideration the unusual level of risk the Yankees would be taking on (signing someone with his size, and a worrying injury history, is uncharted territory), I’m sure the Yanks are willing to talk. 5 years, 100M, with a team option at the end, seems like something they’d happily agree to.
As for the coronavirus, my main worry is that NY politicians will come up with some kind of moronic long term restriction on public events, where ticket sales are capped. If the Yankees aren’t allowed to sell more than 15,000 tickets/game, for instance, in the next two years, that’s going to hurt. But even with that, they will still have more money coming in than most teams.
@stansfield123
Judge is a really difficult one – I do agree with your comments & most of those above who consider him close to if not quite a five tool player – his arm, & his overall defence are both excellent and often missed or ignored.
But in simple terms he’s a big bloke and and plays defence at full tilt 100% full power – with seemingly no regard for his body – which might explain his popularity with fans… and some of his injuries…
What are his 2 future arb years looking like salary wise? Because if he’s getting anywhere near Mookie money in his final season of control I doubt $100m over five years would cut it. However if they offered it at the end of 2020 – buying out two arb years it’s a bit more reasonable and less risk from the both points of view….
If they could DH him a bit more – it’d save him – from himself – he played precisely 10 games as a DH last year. Great player – weirdly maligned.
After reading these comments, if Judge is so good, is George Springer a Hall of Famer?
Resisting the temptation to question his credentials in certain (especially post) seasons? Too easy, so….
Only H of F for looking like a startled rabbit on amphetamines in his baseball ref photo.
He’s first ballot in that one….
baseball-reference.com/players/s/springe01.shtml
A face only a mother could love.
epmgaa.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/photos/2…
Yes, that one’s a beauty and a credit to his orthodontist.
Regardless are we arguing which one is more HOF worthy on the basis of their rabbit/donkey impersonations? If so, I believe we’ve highlighted another hole in the voting process….
Both benefited from Carlos Beltran.
Who cares what Sherman thinks ?
Long-term? Judge is such a great athlete but he is so big and so muscle-bound but I’d be worried about him throwing his body around. He can’t seem to stay healthy because of those facts.
Usually guys that size have shoulder pads and a helmet on and playing tight end in the National Football League.
So long term? No
I think we can all agree, Judge does stink. 19.1 BWAR in a total of 17.18 PA….who would want a player like that? In all seriousness, though, it’s not clear to me that an extremely long term extension, right now, makes any sense for the Yankees. He is injured a lot, and he is under control for a while longer. I’d wait and see.
I love the guy, he seems to be a good guy, he plays hard and as a top ballplayer in my opinion, however I would not give him an extension this year, see how it plays out in the short season, and revisit it next year….I have a hard time believing he could garner a huge contract right now from any team because of his injuries
-Red Sox fan
NYY look at Chris Sale signing for a comparison …..he was injured the second half of 2018 and DD signed him to a 5 year $145 million and got what he deserved. Yes, front office said ok, but moral of the story….do not sign big extension when a player is coming off a season where he has missed a significant number of games.
Cashman is like a Supreme Court justice…..he has a lifetime contract…….lol
20 year $ 1 billion for Judge……lol
When Judge is healthy, he’s a top 10 player in baseball.
The new conditioning and performance staff should be a benefit to Judge. A normal healthy year would see him at .280BA with 45-50 HRs and a .400 OBP.
DO NOT SIGN HIM OR ANYONE ELSE UNLESS YOU GET A DEAL LIKE THE BRAVES GOT. Too much money in guaranteed contracts limits your options and you get stuck with a soft, broken little premadona like Stanton. Horrible!!!!!!!