Free Agent-To-Be Aaron Judge Talks About His Future With Yankees

 

Aaron Judge has been the face of the New York Yankees for some time now, but he's set to hit free agency after 2022. If it was up to him, he'd have an extension worked out to stay in pinstripes before Opening Day (whenever that might be). But if not...?

"I've been lucky enough to play in the best organization out of all of them, so who wants to go anywhere else? If we get an extension done before the season starts, that'd be great. I'd be completely honored to wear pinstripes for a couple more years. But if it doesn't happen and this is my last year [as a Yankee], I had a lot of great memories."

Judge was speaking with CC Sabathia on his R2C2 podcast. He continued, "it's going to work out the way it's supposed to. I've got agents and people taking care of that for me so I'm not even worried." 

Although owner Hal Steinbrenner called Judge "one of the faces of the franchise" back in November, there were no extension talks before the lockout.

Will Judge Reach Free Agency in 2023?

As for his impending free agency, if that desired extension doesn't happen? "Especially coming up through the minor leagues and rookie ball, you want to be a free agent, test the market a little bit and see what's out there." 

One more little frightening clue for Yankee fans, however, came when Judge referred to doing his job on the field: "When it comes to free agency, it's about putting up the numbers and do what you need to do and prove that you deserve a contract... For me it makes my job easy: Go out there and do what I need to do to play every single day for my teammates, and bring a championship back this last year." 

Wait... Did he say, "this last year"? Over to you, Mr. Steinbrenner and Mr. Cashman. 

Photo Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports