Yankees Offer Aaron Judge Record Contract After Years of Lowballing Him

The New York Yankees are reportedly going all-out in their bid to retain Aaron Judge. The record-breaking American League MVP has multiple suitors, but it appears this will come down to a battle between the Yankees and San Francisco Giants. And the Yankees are willing to part with record money to keep him.

ESPN‘s Jeff Passan is reporting the Yankees are currently offering a deal in the neighborhood of eight years and $300 million. That works out to an average annual value of $37.5 million, which would be the highest in Major League Baseball. Mike Trout currently tops that list with a deal that averages $35.5 million. Passan thinks the Yankees might even push higher if they need to.

The Yankees completely mishandled Judge’s contract situation in the years before he hit free agency. They repeatedly lowballed him and drove him into a position where he played out the final year of his deal. All he did was go out and have the greatest contract year in sports history.

Playing without the safety net of an extension, the 30-year-old Judge bet on himself and came up aces. He hit .311 with an AL-record 62 home runs, 131 RBI, an OPS of 1.111 and an MLB-best fWAR of 11.4. He was completely dominant all season and the Yankees made a terrible decision by not locking him up a year or two ago. Now they’ll pay the price.

Judge is likely to make a decision during next week’s Winter Meetings.