Aaron Judge did not hide his initial frustration with the New York Yankees’ relatively quiet offseason.
The three-time AL MVP kept things candid on Monday as he fielded questions from reporters to open spring training. One media member asked him about his personal experience waiting for the Yankees to make moves, particularly the eventual re-signing of Cody Bellinger.
“It was brutal,” Judge answered, via SNY. “I see a lot of free agents out there. I see a lot of guys like the Bellingers, the Grishams, the Goldschmidts. Let’s sign these guys right now and then start adding more pieces. I’m seeing other teams around the league get better. They’re making trades, they’re signing big prospects or big players and we kind of were sitting there for a while, kind of making smaller moves.
“It was tough there in the beginning, but I think once we solidified getting Bellinger back, we got Trent being our center fielder, being our leadoff guy for another year. You add a guy like Goldy, some of the back-end bullpen pieces that we’ve been doing, I think we’ll be in a good spot.”
Judge stated that he has since come to terms with the Yankees virtually running things back with Bellinger, center fielder Trent Grisham, and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. But Judge’s words sounded more like him talking himself into the team he has rather than him genuinely being enthusiastic about the Yankees’ roster.
The Yankees slugger also admitted that it was “pretty tough” and “frustrating” for him early on. He initially felt, given the Yankees’ reputation as big spenders, that the team wasn’t stockpiling talent like some other teams have been over the past few months.
The Yankees focused on fending off other teams to re-sign Bellinger. The Bronx Bombers were linked to a few big names, such as Bo Bichette and Kyle Tucker, but the Yankees failed to make any headline-grabbing moves. The team may very well view the return of ace pitcher Gerrit Cole from Tommy John surgery as the splashy addition for next season.
