NEW YORK — The face of the Yankees was dressed in a suit at the MLBPA’s Manhattan office Friday morning dreading going through with his salary-arbitration hearing, which was scheduled for noon on Zoom.
Aaron Judge was looking to meet the Yankees in the middle and avoid fighting them over money, and that’s what happened.
Barely.
Judge filed at $21 million, the Yankees were at $17 million and they settled at $19 million.
That’s apparently what Judge was willing to take all along, but he seems miffed that the Yankees waited last minute to propose a middle-ground settlement.
“You wonder when you’re going through it why, but I didn’t ask,” Judge said Friday night after the Yankees’ 3-1 loss to the Astros. “I didn’t feel the need. It’s a business. They’ve got the things they’re doing on their side running numbers and stuff like that. We’re doing the same thing. I’m just thankful to get past it, get it done and go back to focusing on winning some games here.”
The Yankees have the best record in the majors and Judge is the early American League MVP favorite, so there’s been no focus issues since he turned down a seven-year, $213.5 million extension offer on Opening Day. Then, Judge vowed that there would be no more long-term deal talks until after the season when he’s a free agent, and nothing’s changed there.
“No, that’s for when the season’s done,” Judge said.
Judge added that avoiding the hearing did nothing to make him more confident that he and Yankees’ marriage won’t end after the 2022 season.
“No,” Judge said. “We got this one done. I was happy about that.”
Judge is happy, but also relieved.
“Oh, definitely,” he said. “Get back to focusing on baseball games and trying to bring a championship back here to New York. I’m glad we were able to get through that process. Took a little longer than expected.”
Judge says he and the Yankees didn’t get close until right before noon. At that point, they delayed the start of the meeting to try finalizing a deal, which occurred after the sides agreed on $19 million plus $500,000 worth of performance bonuses — $250,000 for AL MVP and $250,000 for World Series MVP.
“We were logged in and ready to go,” Judge said. “All dressed up. I think we got it done at like 12:45. I knew it would work out one way or the other. I really wasn’t too concerned about what it was going to be and I was happy we were able to agree on a number and settle this thing and not have to go into court.”
Nobody wanted that. Arbitration hearings can lead to hard feelings. Just ask Dellin Betances, the last Yankees player to go through one.
Although Judge knew this was a real possibility since April, he’s in the midst of a great season with a .299 average, major-league-leading 27 homers and 53 RBI in 69 games for a 52-19 ballclub that has an 11.5-game lead in the AL East.
Judge says that he hasn’t been any extra motivated to put up big numbers so that he’ll get what he wants in a long-term deal, which reportedly is more than $300 million.
“I’m still the same guy,” Judge said. “I enjoy my craft. I try to improve every single offseason and find the things that I wasn’t doing well the year before and continue to try to improve on them. So hopefully next year I continue to get better and better and we’ll see where it goes.”
And we’ll see where Judge goes.
“I guess we have him for this year and hopefully we can sign him back,” Yankees pitcher Luis Severino said.
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.
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