I can never just be happy. The Yankees have the best record in the league, the best ERA, and the hottest player in Aaron Judge. But here I sit glossing over impending doom. The life we chose.
I scoffed at the fans in recent seasons who were clamoring for the Yankees to trade Aaron Judge. I wasn’t part of the faction that was ready to stitch a “C” on his chest, but I wasn’t far off. It is in my humble opinion, that when Aaron Judge is healthy, he’s a top 5 hitter in the MLB. I’m not even going to argue the numbers, I don’t think there’s five people playing you’d rather face less than Aaron Judge.
This is Judge’s last year on his contract. The Yankees tried and failed to extend him before the season. Judge rejected a seven year deal for $213.5 million dollars. 30.5 million a year. Well the price just went up.
Aaron Judge took a bet on himself that looks to be paying off so far. He’s batting .306, leads the MLB in home runs, and top five in RBIs through his first thirty-five games this season. If it wasn’t for the cheat code scam that Ohtani’s running, he’d be the early favorite for MVP.
So why haven’t the Yankees locked up the home grown guy? Age? Injuries? Hal’s a cheap bastard? Cashman likes to get too cute? Probably all of the above. But they’ve also seen how this plays out before.
Robinson Cano was once the young buck to come through the Yankees farm to steal the hearts of the Bronx. He was an All-Star at 23 years old who batted .343 on the season. Cano batted over .300 in seven out of nine seasons with the Yankees (.343, .306, .320, .319, .302, .313, .314) cementing himself as one of the best hitters in the league. I remember the fans calling for him to succeed Jeter. But just like Aaron Judge, his final contract year came at the age of 30.
The Yankees were just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the A-Rod contract. They offered Cano seven years $175 million. He turned it down and accepted the fourth highest contract in MLB history at the time. Ten years, $240 million. The fifth ever contract over the $200 mil threshold.
Yankees fans motherfucked everyone. Cano, Cashman, the Mariners, Jay-Z. We wanted blood. Cano only batted over .300 in one full season after that. He had a power resurgence in 2016 hitting 39 home runs that ended with Robbie getting popped for PEDs. The Mets are now paying Robinson Cano 48 million dollars to not play for their team.
Given the monstrous power of Judge and the longevity of DHs there’s an argument for his higher rate of potential success. But Cano didn’t have nearly as many injury struggles as Judge. The knock against the Yankees slugger is that he can’t stay on the field. 112 games in 2018, 102 games in 2019, and only half the 2020 shortened season.
There are now nine players in the MLB that have signed a contract over 300 million dollars. Judge is playing his way into becoming the tenth. But these high-in-year contracts have such a low success rate. Cano, Prince Fielder, Strasburg, David Price, more recently Marcus Semien and Anthony Rendon have looked like shit. Stanton’s hot right now but he’s no where near that MVP season form. And maybe the best hitter of the generation, Albert Pujols, regressed the second pen hit paper.
Cano didn’t give us the home town discount. Judge won’t give us the injury prone discount. I don’t think we’re going to resign him without a bargain.
I’d give him the money I don’t give a fuck. But I’m readying myself for when I see Judge in another uniform next year. I’m readying myself to be hurt. If we resign Judge, I’ll pretend I never wrote this and defend the decision to the death. But if he signs elsewhere, which past practice has shown is very much a possibility, I’ll remind everyone why it’s the right call. But I’m telling you right now, if Cashman gambles wrong on Aaron Judge, he better count his fuckin days.
No comments:
Post a Comment