SAN DIEGO — The Giants identified Aaron Judge as their top free-agent target, and he gave them enough consideration to visit for a long set of in-person meetings, but like past high-profile pursuits, it appears San Francisco has finished runners-up.
According to reports Wednesday morning, Judge has decided to re-sign with the New York Yankees for nine years and $360 million, equal to the last reported offer from San Francisco, which will pay him the highest average annual salary of any position player in MLB history.
President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told reporters at the GM meetings that, “from a financial standpoint, there’s nobody that would be out of our capability to meet what we expect the contract demands will be.” And throughout the winter meetings this week, the Giants have expressed optimism at their chances of prying the AL MVP away from New York.
