New York Yankees: Why team should extend Aaron Judge now
By Manny Gómez
Despite all the injuries, the New York Yankees should try and extend Aaron Judge.
After a stellar rookie season in 2017, one in which he won the Rookie of the Year award and just missed out on an AL MVP award, Aaron Judge has presented as an injury-prone player for the New York Yankees. In fact, since 2017, Judge has spent time on the IL on three separate occasions.
His first stint on the IL occurred back in July of 2018 after being hit by a pitch and diagnosed with a right wrist fracture. This resulted in Judge missing close to 2-months of the MLB season
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The second stint occurred last season when Judge strained his left oblique muscle, causing him to miss 2-months… again.
This time, though reports have it that Judge wanted to play, the Yankees have opted to play it safe and placed him on the IL with a right calf strain. Lets also not forget that he was set to miss the start of this season before the pandemic shut MLB down because of a rib fracture.
In any other circumstance, all of these warning flags would result in a team steering clear of considering an extension. For Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees, however, it just might be the perfect opportunity to work out an extension.
Why would the New York Yankees want to extend Aaron Judge?
Aside from Mike Trout and Mookie Betts, when healthy, Judge is arguably the best player in the sport. An argument can also be made that Judge might just be the face of the game.
What there is no question about is that inside and out of New York, Judge is a fan-favorite and the type of player that can help to grow the sport.
The only problem with the slugger is his proneness to injury. And that’s a big problem.
However, in extending a player like Judge, all parties could potentially win big. Here’s why:
- Given his history, the Yankees might be able to make Judge a Yankee-for-life for a reasonable price (say, 8-years, $160M plus more money with incentives?).
- For Judge, he’d secure himself for the future with a guaranteed $20M per season, even if he continues to gets injured.
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What say you? If you were Aaron Judge, would you accept this type of deal at this point in your career? Leave us a comment!