Aaron Judge has officially decided to return to the New York Yankees, and he reportedly turned down a bigger offer from at least one team. That team is probably used to it by now.
Before he agreed to a 9-year, $360 million deal with the Yankees, Judge flew to San Diego on Tuesday night to meet with the Padres. According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the AL MVP was offered an even bigger deal during that trip than the one he is signing with the Yankees.
The Padres reportedly offered Judge $400 million over 10 years.
The primary reason why Aaron Judge flew to San Diego on Tuesday was to meet with the San Diego #Padres.
They offered him $400 million over 10 years.
Judge stays put in New York for $360 million over nine years.— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 7, 2022
The additional year was not enough to persuade Judge to take his talents to the West Coast.
That is at least the second time this offseason that the Padres have outbid everyone for a star player and still been turned down. They did the same with shortstop Trea Turner before he signed an 11-year, $300 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Padres are obviously desperate to add another star player and are doing all they can to make that happen.
Judge was supposedly deciding between the Yankees and another West Coast team before the Padres got involved late. It is possible his plan all along was to return to New York and he simply used the other teams to drive up the price. If that is what happened to San Diego with both Judge and Turner, they have to be feeling pretty frustrated.
