PITTSBURGH — Hal Steinbrenner is watching what Aaron Judge is doing this season. The 29 homers to lead the majors, carrying the offense and pushing the team. The Yankees’ controlling partner also knows all of that is going to cost him more money if the face of his franchise is going to be a Yankee beyond this season.
“Look, Aaron is a great Yankee, and he’s very valuable to the organization,” Steinbrenner said on a video conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon. “He’s a great leader. Obviously, he’s performing extremely well this year and we’re all all thrilled about it. So look, any great Yankee, yes, it’s going to be it’s going to be something we’re going to be looking at and talking about seriously. You know, it means a lot to the organization. Nobody’s gonna deny that.”
Steinbrenner said he was “hopeful” that Judge, who turned down an offer worth $230 million before Opening Day, would remain a Yankee for a long time.
“Well, there’s no doubt we were hopeful that that is the case,” Steinbrenner said. “But there’s a lot of discussion to be had. And I’m always willing to talk of course. And we’re going to be doing that at one point or another but we’re just not going to be talking about if that happens or if and when that happens. We’re not going to be talking about anything till the season’s over.”
At the exact halfway point of the season, Judge, who is making $19 million this season after narrowly avoiding arbitration, has raised his price tag considerably. Besides leading the majors with 29 homers, Judge is slashing .281/.360/.612 with a .972 OPS.
Steinbrenner understands the value of that.
“I mean, it’s just been phenomenal. And not only his play on the field, but his leadership has been phenomenal,” Steinbrenner said. “He’s a guy that’s confident, a great talent and he believes in himself and that’s what you’re seeing this year. And we’re all thrilled.”
Perhaps the most impressive numbers Judge has put up this season are 299-79. That’s 299 at-bats and 79 games played. After years of injury issues, Judge has avoided injuries and missing significant time for the last season and a half.
Judge came into 2022 ready to bet on himself. He was ready to go to an arbitration hearing for this year’s salary (the team and player settled in the middle with incentives) and at the self-imposed deadline, he said no to seven years at $30.5 average annual value that would have made him the highest paid position player per year (or AAV) in Yankee history, and the second-highest on the team behind Gerrit Cole. It would have given him the second-highest AAV of an outfielder in the game, behind only Mike Trout.
That Yankees GM Brian Cashman laid bare the details of the deal he turned down irritated the slugger and made it seem like there was some animosity there. Judge said that day that he’d wanted to keep it private.
“Well, to my knowledge, what we announced is what we offered, we knew that it was gonna get out anyway,” Steinbrenner said. “And as Cashman said, we wanted to be as transparent as possible.”
Steinbrenner said he had no regrets about how those negotiations went, though he did note that they had a limited window last time because of the owners’ lockout.
“We made an offer that I feel was a very good one. It was based on the numbers of course, but it was also based in part on what (he) means to his organization,” Steinbrenner said. “It was a combination of both. And we just didn’t get to deal with them. We had less time of course this offseason than we would normally because of the lockout and all but there’s no regrets and we’re going to be having discussions at some point.”
And while Steinbrenner is pretty confident that they will have meaningful talks with Judge, don’t expect to hear about it before the Yankees season ends — whenever that may be.
“No matter what happens during the season, we’re not gonna give any updates or we’re just not going to do it. I mean, I completely agreed with Aaron, and still do. that in no way shape or form can this be a distraction,” Steinbrenner said. “The sole focus is winning a championship, that’s all anyone needs to worry about right now.”
