MLB Rumors: Rival Exec Feels One Team Is A Lock For Aaron Judge

The bidding for AL MVP and single-season home run king Aaron Judge is bound to reach a fever pitch at the coming Winter Meetings next week. But there are really only two teams that are in the running to plop down the $300M+ it'll take to sign him: the incumbent New York Yankees, and his hometown San Francisco Giants. 

And according to MLB Insider Jon Heyman, one rival executive thinks they know exactly where Judge will wind up signing:

He’s going to leave the greatest market to go across country to a team where it’s hard to hit homers? Come on.

In other words: the Yankees are a shoo-in to retain their franchise player, according to that one exec's reasoning. 

The point about Oracle Park in San Francisco is well-taken, as it finished near the bottom once again in homers, ranking 28th in baseball with just 0.72 per game. Yankee Stadium ranked lower than it normally does, however, at 15th in MLB, at 1.015 HR/game.

Judge has spent his entire 7-year career in baseball's biggest market with the sport's most iconic franchise. He elevated himself onto the level of all-time Yankee greats this season with an MVP performance rarely seen before: .311 average with a major-league leading (and AL record) 62 home runs, 131 RBIs, 133 runs, 1.111 OPS, .425 on-base, and .686 slugging percentage. 

If he stays, he's in line to become the next in an exclusive group of Yankees Captains, and to one day join all the other legends in Monument Park in Yankee Stadium. 

If he goes to the Giants, he'd be playing for his childhood favorite team, a two-hour drive away from his childhood home, and still the home of his parents (Linden, CA), and a franchise that has a few iconic figures of its own in Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Willie McCovey, and even Buster Posey, who led the team to three World Series championships in the 2010s. 

The Yankees' latest offer was revealed yesterday, and the choice is all his, but at least one baseball executive feels it's an easy decision.

Photo: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports