Aaron Judge has been with the New York Yankees since the beginning of his MLB career, and he’s not going anywhere. The team avoided an arbitration hearing after agreeing to sign a $19 million deal for the next season with their star right fielder.
The arbitration hearing was in the books after the two sides struggled to reach an agreement regarding Judge’s contract. They initially offered him a long-term extension, worth $213.5 million over the course of seven seasons, but he said no. Judge also rejected the Yankees’ initial offer of $17 million per season and asked for $21 million.
How much was the Judge negotiation a game of chicken: The participants were in their rooms and the arbitrators were on the Zoom call, when there was a request to delay the noon start to see if they could finalize an agreement to avoid the arbitration hearing — which they did.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) June 24, 2022
They eventually met in the middle, and Judge previously said this is just business and that the contract situation doesn’t impact the way he plays.
“For me, it’s plain and simple: I love this team, I love this organization and everything, but this is a business side of it that I don’t like at times. I don’t think a lot of people like it; I don’t think the team likes it. You have to go through, you handle it and you move on,” Judge told MLB.com.
The 30-year-old right fielder joined the Yankees in 2016 and was named an All-Star on three separate occasions, most recently in 2021.
