Yankees GM Brian Cashman reiterated on Friday the team’s desire to bring back Aaron Judgeand gave very detailed answers about the negotiations to come and the factors that will be at play.
“It involves a lot of people, and ultimately the owner has to take everything into account,” Cashman said at Yankee Stadium during the team’s end-of-season news conference. “First, he checks all the boxes. Does he help you win games on the field, first and foremost? And then will he do so moving forward? There’s no guarantee in terms of health in any situations.”
Judge, who will be entering his age-31 season, rejected the Yankees’ extension offer before the season and will become an unrestricted free agent five days after the end of the World Series, when the Yankees’ exclusive five-day negotiating window ends.
It was reported last month that the Los Angeles Dodgers “could become serious players” for Judge, while the San Francisco Giants have been viewed as the “most likely threat” to take the slugger from the Yankees.
While speaking about Judge’s potential Yankees future, Cashman also discussed his intangibles and off-field aspects.
“He’s a fan favorite, he interacts with our fans extremely well. He’s respected within that clubhouse, goes about his business as good as you possibly can, and is an elite performer as one of the game’s best, if not the best player,” Cashman explained. “With all that being said, those are the type that you want to retain and have as long as you possibly can. It involves a lot of different categories. You want a team that can compete for a championship and ultimately win a championship. A a player like him would help you do that as we move forward.
“Also gonna drive — as George Steinbrenner would say — ‘fannies in the seats.’ People want to go watch that guy play. You want to put great teams on the field, but they want to come here to watch you compete for wins. But certain individual players transcend the team, and everything stops when they’re at the bat or they have the ball in their hand. So he’s one of those types (of) talent.”
Unsurprisingly, Cashman would not say whether there’s a certain threshold the Yankees are unwilling to exceed for Judge, and noted that the final call will be up to ownership.
“Ultimately Hal Steinbrenner will collect all the information from the industry standpoint, where people are in free agency — things can get pretty crazy,” Cashman said. “And then obviously factor in everything else that is non-baseball-related.
“Whether it’s obviously what drives our fan base showing up and supporting us. And he wants to make them happy. And he’s always been driven that way, to make our fans happy. Hopefully we’ll have some positive conversations that lead to the outcome that we want. We’ll see.”