Yankees re-sign Judge on long term megadeal

*Photo from The Athletic*

   The current AL MVP is staying in town after all. The New York Yankees and OF Aaron Judge have agreed to a 9 year, $360 million deal, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Yankees have confirmed the deal.

   The contract goes down as the largest the Yankees have given out to a player, passing Gerrit Cole's 9 year, $324 million deal before the 2020 season began. It's also the largest contract given to a free agent in baseball history, and it makes Judge the 3rd highest paid player in baseball, trailing only Mookie Betts and Mike Trout.

   Negotiations had reportedly reached it's end on Tuesday night when a report came out that Judge was heading to the San Francisco Giants. Ultimately, that proved to be too early a report, with Judge choosing the Yankees over San Francisco and the San Diego Padres, who made a late push.

   Last season was easily the best of Judge's 7 year career. He ended the season with a .311 batting average, .425 on base percentage, and .686 slugging percentage, blasting 62 home runs and driving in 131 in 157 games played, reaching the all star game. He hit .200 in the ALDS and .063 in the ALCS as the Yankees season ended at the hands of the Houston Astros.

   Judge has 4 all star games under his belt in 7 seasons with the Yankees. In that time, he also has a .284 batting average, .583 slugging percentage, and .394 on base percentage, adding 497 RBI's and 220 home runs in 729 games. He has a .211 batting average with 13 home runs and 25 RBI's in 44 playoff games.

   Since debuting in 2016, the 220 homers by Judge rank second in the majors behind Nolan Arenado's 229. He led the majors in home runs, RBI's, runs scored, slugging percentage, total bases, and OPS+, finishing second in batting average.

   By passing Roger Maris for the AL single season home run record in 2022, Judge also became the 4th player in baseball history to hit 62 or more homers in one year, joining Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa. His at bat to homer ratio of 11.99 also ranks as the 3rd highest in baseball history.

   After previously re-signing Anthony Rizzo and agreeing to a deal with Tommy Kahnle, the Yankees now have their superstar locked up for almost another decade, all but ensuring he'll be a Yankee for life.