It remains to be seen how much longer Aaron Judge will continue to wield his gavel for the New York Yankees. But Judge did have something to say this week about all the uncertainty surrounding his future.
The Yankees slugger appeared this week on The Ringer’s “R2C2” podcast and was asked about his situation with the team ahead of the final year of his contract.
“I’ve been lucky enough to play in the best organization out of all of them,” said Judge. “So who wants to go anywhere else? If we get an extension done at some point before the season starts, that would be great, and I would be completely honored to wear pinstripes for a couple more years.
“But if it doesn’t happen, and this is my last year [in New York], I had a lot of great memories,” Judge added. “It doesn’t matter if it’s my last year, first year, I’m gonna out there and play my best and do what I need to do for the city and do what I need to do for the team. It’s all in God’s hands. It’s gonna work out the way it’s supposed to. I got agents, I got people taking care of that for me, so I’m not even worried.”
The 29-year-old Judge will be a free agent after the 2022 season as it stands right now. The Yankees would obviously love to hang onto their three-time All-Star fan favorite. But Judge’s lengthy injury history might give them pause about simply giving Judge whatever contract figure he desires.
Fortunately for Judge, he is coming off a stellar 2021 campaign where he appeared in 148 games and hit .287 with 39 homers and 98 RBIs, cutting down on his strikeouts a bit too. But last year also came with rumors that Judge might even be traded, so there’s still a lot that can happen between the two sides in the coming months.
