Aaron Judge should have ditched the Yankees when he had the chance
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The Baseball Winter Meetings are off and running this week and while we had seen a number of big-name players join new teams with massive deals, the biggest star on the market finally made a decision Wednesday morning and it’s one that must have Yankees fans feeling a whole lot better about themselves.
I’m talking, of course, about Aaron Judge. Or Arson Judge, as one reporter called him yesterday. The slugger is reportedly sticking with the Yankees with a new 9-year, $360 million deal.
That’s fantastic money, of course, but it would have been a lot more fun if Judge left town for the San Francisco Giants, who were reportedly the biggest suitor earlier this week.
Judge is coming off a historic season in which he hit 62 home runs, the most in the American League since Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961. Judge must be pretty sore from the season because he spent most of the year carrying a mediocre Yankees lineup to 99 wins and an AL East title.
The Yankees then finished the year the way they’ve finished every season since 2009 – falling short of the World Series. Judge and Co. were swept by the Astros in four games in the ALCS and Yankees fans were once again left to spend a long winter wondering if their team will ever battle for a title again.
There are many reasons why a move to San Francisco would have been a better one for Judge.
1. A return to the Yankees means he’ll likely have to carry more blah lineups and will catch the blame if he doesn’t do it in historic fashion. The bar is now very high for him in New York and fans in the Bronx will be expecting even more from him, which in reality is a lot to ask for considering what he did last year.
2. The Yankees have proven they are never a sure thing to win a World Series title, despite how much attention they get from fans and the media. 2009 was a long time ago. The Derek Jeter years were a long time ago. Yankees fans want a title now and things are only going to get more intense in the Bronx as the years without a trophy keep adding up.
3. The Giants actually know how to win the World Series, winning three since the last time the Yankees won one. They’ve shown they can turn things around in a hurry and become championship contenders in the blink of an eye and Judge could have helped them do that once again.
4. San Francisco is a fantastic baseball town full of people who love their Giants and make it a really fun place to play. The Bronx is full of pressure and frustrations over years of coming up short. Judge wouldn’t have found those vibes in SF.
Judge, however, has decided to stay in New York and who can really blame him considering all the money the Yankees are going to pay him.
But it would have been a lot cooler if ditched ’em.
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