Aaron Judge To Meet With Giants In San Francisco
Aaron Judge is visiting close to home with Thanksgiving approaching, but the American League MVP is expected to see more than just family and friends this week.
MLB Network’s Jon Morosi posted a video Monday night that showed Judge in San Francisco. The outfielder has stated a desire to remain with the Yankees – and vice versa – but Judge has plans to meet with the Giants on Tuesday, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.
The Giants have been considered a serious threat to pry Judge away from the Yankees, as the 30-year-old is from Linden, California. A two-plus-hour drive from San Francisco, Judge grew up a Giants fan.
But it will take more than geography and childhood allegiances for the Giants to woo Judge away from New York. Fortunately for San Francisco, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has already said the team can shop at the top of the free agent market this winter.
“From a financial standpoint, there’s nobody that would be out of our capability to kind of meet what we expect the contract demands will be,” Zaidi said in early November, per MLB.com’s Maria Guardado, though he wasn’t talking about a specific player. “It’ll just be a question of whether there’s mutual interest and how we put together the best possible team.”
Judge is sure to sign a contract exceeding the seven-year, $213.5 million extension offer the Yankees proposed before Opening Day earlier this year. Judge declined the deal and went on to reset the American League and franchise single-season home run records with 62 longballs. He added a .311/.425/.686 slash line, 131 RBI, 16 stolen bases and a 211 OPS+ before garnering 28 of 30 first-place MVP votes.
“Well deserved,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told reporters following Judge’s award win. “What an amazing season. Clearly, we hope his Yankee career is not over yet."
