To the average fan, and maybe even the average person in baseball, Aaron Judge would have been wise to accept the Yankees’ offer of a seven-year, $213.5 million extension. But the argument for Judge taking the deal, on top of his one remaining year of arbitration, is almost exclusively a baseball argument. Judge almost certainly sees himself as more than just another top player, in part because the Yankees and Major League Baseball have marketed him as more than that.
Judge, who turns 30 on April 26, is perhaps the biggest sports star in the nation’s biggest market, a player who has proven he can handle the pressure of playing in New York, a larger-than-life figure both on and off the field. The difference in the seven-year term the Yankees offered and the eight-year extension he requested, according to sources, is not terribly significant. But Judge wanted an average annual value in the range of the $36 million Mike Trout received in his extension with the Los Angeles Angels, and the Yankees offered an AAV of $30.5 million.
The Yankees’ proposal, covering Judge’s age 31 to 37 seasons, would have given him the second-highest AAV among outfielders, behind only Trout’s and slightly ahead of Mookie Betts’ $30.4 million. The gap between Judge and Betts, however, would be greater than it might appear. The deferrals in Betts’ contract bring the present-day value of his AAV down to $25.5 million, according to the Players Association.