Aaron Judge’s free agency has arrived
Aaron Judge is a free agent. He had a good season, hitting 62 home runs with an 1.111 OPS and 11.4 fWAR. Aaron Hicks took a step back defensively and Harrison Bader recovered post-trade.
Yankee's and Giants are interested in signing Aaron Judge. He's an All-World player and a good hitter. FanGraphs' Top 50 Free Agents has him settling somewhere around $300 million. MLB Trade Rumors predicts $332 million over eight years. There are risks with bringing him back, such as his age and peak. He'll be 31 shortly after Opening Day. His 2023 Fan Graphs DC projection has his win expectancy at 6.7 wins and 157 wRC+. It's closer to his career 163. If that projection holds, he would go from the MVP favorite to merely an MVP finalist. The Yankees and the Giants have made their interest pretty known.
Aaron Judge is the best pure baseball talent the Yankees have produced since Mickey Mantle. He is also the face of the team and the de facto captain of Yankees. The Yankees are not very good without him. Trea Turner is projected to be two full wins worse than Aaron Judge next year. If the Yanks let him walk, they will have to spread the money around.
