Entering the offseason, there was always a high likelihood that Aaron Judge was going to be in The Bronx on Thursday afternoon.
It was just a question of whether he was going to be batting in the top or the bottom of the first inning.
Whether he was going to be villainized or adored.
Whether he was going to be a San Francisco Giant or a New York Yankee.
Three-hundred-sixty million dollars later, of course, Judge chose to stay home instead of go home, setting up an Opening Day in which the new Yankees captain will be hailed for his return as he begins an encore to his 62-home run season.
“I think I saw [Opening Day matchup] during the middle of the year last year, and I was kind of like, ‘Someone’s messing with me on MLB’s side,’ ” Judge said with a chuckle Tuesday after the Yankees played their final spring tuneup in Washington. “But that never really crossed my mind during the whole [free-agent] process. It is what it is. Especially if I’m going to be playing every single team no matter what, I was going to run into them eventually.”
But the schedule-makers had some fun, pitting Judge in his first game as captain against the team he grew up rooting for and the one that tried to lure him home this offseason.
Judge met with the Giants during the week of Thanksgiving and entertained the idea of signing there.
Among other things, it would have meant facing Gerrit Cole on Thursday instead of playing behind him.
“I almost got close to thinking maybe that could happen, but I pulled myself back off the edge,” Cole said with a laugh.
Instead, Judge will be back in pinstripes and roaming the outfield at Yankee Stadium — he will play all three outfield spots this season, but likely center field on Thursday — where the roars for him may rival the ones that he heard last season on the way to breaking Roger Maris’ American League home run record.
“I’m a Yankee,” Judge said. “But this is going to be special — my first Opening Day as a captain and getting a chance to play against a great organization like that, we’re going to have some fun and go out there and take care of business.”
Signing Judge to his nine-year, $360 million contract was the Yankees’ most important work of the offseason, but they complemented that by bringing back first baseman Anthony Rizzo (two years, $40 million), landing left-hander Carlos Rodon to a six-year $162 million contract and bolstering their bullpen with a Tommy Kahnle (two years, $11.5 million) reunion.
Rodon and Kahnle will begin the season on the injured list, two of five expected regulars who got hurt during spring training — plus Frankie Montas who underwent shoulder surgery.
But Judge is still confident in the group the Yankees brought north.
“We got the players, especially the core group of guys that we have,” Judge said. “You always hope that you can go into spring training with this set group that you kind of imagined throughout the offseason when we grab certain guys or certain guys get called up. But we know that’s not realistic. We know there’s always going to be some bumps in the road.
“But this is what this team’s built for.”
That team would have looked much differently had Judge decided to be in the visiting dugout on Thursday afternoon in The Bronx.
But now, on the first day of the rest of his Yankees life, Judge’s teammates are just anxious to see what he does next.
“Because he’s so impactful, you’re just excited to anticipate what he’s going to do, what he’s going to bring to the game,” Cole said. “He could hit four homers. It’s pretty awesome.”