Aaron Judge’s Big Bet Pays Off—and Then Some

The biggest free agent of the winter is off the market: Aaron Judge will reportedly stay with the Yankees for the rest of his career.

The nine-year, $360-million deal is the most expensive in the history of MLB free agency. It comes after months of intrigue and kicked off the third day of winter meetings with a bang. (It also comes roughly 15 hours after one high-profile rumor that the slugger was all but already on his way to the Giants and set the hot stove ablaze.) Judge has spent his entire career with the Yankees. He’s gone with the club from first-round draft pick in 2013 to Rookie of the Year in ’17 to AL MVP in ’22. Yet he’d turned down previous opportunities to stay in New York, including a seven-year, $213.5-million extension offer shared publicly by the team just before Opening Day. Instead, Judge bet on himself, and he decided to test the open market of free agency after the season.

Judge’s $40 million average annual salary shattered the previous record for a position player (Mike Trout’s $35.5 million AAV).

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