Thus far, New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge seems to have made the right decision by rejecting the seven-year, $213.5 million extension offered to him by the club before his self-announced deadline of Opening Day to get a deal done.
Judge entered Wednesday afternoon’s home game against the Toronto Blue Jays slashing .290/.356/.626 and, per ESPN stats, leading all of MLB with 10 home runs and tied for ninth with 22 RBI. The three-time All-Star generated additional positive headlines on Tuesday evening when he crushed a three-run walk-off homer versus the Blue Jays that improved the Bronx Bombers to 21-8 overall.
Before Wednesday’s encounter at Yankee Stadium, New York general manager Brian Cashman spoke with media members and confirmed that a date has been set for a salary arbitration hearing that will determine if Judge will earn either $17 million or $21 million for the current season. Cashman also avoided offering specifics about any potential contract discussions involving the pending free agent.
“I think what we said right before the season started, just to shine a light on everything, we’re not going to talk about it now going forward,” Cashman explained, according to Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. “Whether that means we’re going to talk or not, I’m not saying that. But we’re not going to talk about it here in (a public) forum moving forward. But he’s been great, but that’s no surprise because he is great.”
Cashman also hit out at the suggestion Judge didn’t know the executive would tell the media about the Yankees’ extension offer in April.
“All that stuff feels like a month and a half ago now, so I don’t really think that need to reiterate it,” Cashman remarked. “But, yes, his camp knew all about it. So I assumed (Judge) knew all about it. And if you’re saying he was upset by it, I’m unaware of that and it certainly doesn’t feel like it when I’ve interacted with him from then till now.”
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