Aaron Judge led the majors with 58 home runs, 144 RBIs, and 133 walks while batting.The Yankees reached the World Series for the first time since 2009, but fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Soto batted.288 with 41 home runs, 109 RBIs, and 129 walks in his first season with the Yankees, finishing third in MVP votes behind only Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.
Soto, a 26-year-old free agent, has met with the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, and Red Sox. He also intends to meet with the Philadelphia Phillies, according to a source involved with the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversations have not been made public.
The talks are not anticipated to resume until after Thanksgiving.
Judge hasn’t spoken with Soto since the World Series. Judge entered the free agency process after hitting an AL record 62 home runs in 2022.
“The best thing is to really give those guys space,” Mr. Judge remarked. “I talked to him all season and he knows how we feel about him and I think the most important thing is now let him do his thing with his family, pray about it, talk with people and come to the right decision for him and his family.”
Aaron Judge isn’t concerned if the New York Yankees offer free agent Juan Soto a greater contract than Judge’s current $360 million, nine-year pact.
“It’s not my money. I honestly don’t care as long as we get the best guys, as many as we can, I’m satisfied with whatever,” Judge said on Friday, the day after being crowned the unanimous winner of his second AL MVP award.
“That’s never been something on my mind about who gets paid the most.”
Soto met with Yankees officials on Monday at a hotel in Southern California, including owner Hal Steinbrenner, team president Randy Levine, general manager Brian Cashman, manager Aaron Boone, and senior advisor for baseball operations Omar Minaya.
“We had a good meeting.” Steinbrenner stated on Wednesday that it was a couple of hours of really candid back-and-forth conversation.
When asked how confident he was in keeping Soto, Steinbrenner replied, “No idea. We will be in the mix. “I’ll leave it at that.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Soto and Judge held the second and third slots in the Yankees’ hitting order for 153 games, breaking the franchise record of 145 games set by Joe Dugan and Babe Ruth in 1923.
“I get to see a lot of pitches,” Judge explained. “He’ll have a tough at-bat in front of me. He’ll wear down the pitcher in the first inning, maybe within the first 15 pitches. Yes, I believe that simply having a guy like him in front of you had a significant impact.
“If I could have eight Juan Sotos in the lineup with me, I would love that.”
Following the World Series, Judge spent about a week in Tampa, Florida, where the Yankees held spring training, meeting with Steinbrenner.
“We kind of just discussed a lot of things from Juan to other guys that are kind of out there that I think could definitely help this team,” stated Judge. “So I kind of just gave my input on a couple things.”
Judge stated that when he signed to his huge deal in late 2022, Steinbrenner wanted to strengthen their friendship. They’ve been meeting every week or two, and pitcher Gerrit Cole has formed a similar relationship with the owner.
“I think just having that relationship to where I can kind of communicate with him about what I’m seeing, what I’m feeling, what I see with the guys, what I see against other guys that we play against,” Judge went on. “I think it’s a cool part to where I think just the more communication you have from top to bottom, it just — it makes everybody better.”
Judge’s contract is the fourth-largest in baseball, after only the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani ($700 million), the Angels’ Mike Trout ($426.5 million), and the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts ($365 million).
Judge used teammate Giancarlo Stanton as an example. Stanton’s $325 million contract was the richest when he signed with the Yankees prior to the 2018 season, but it is now tied for ninth.
“Even though he received one of the first huge mega-contracts in Miami, once he arrived here, he didn’t care about being the highest-paid man. “He just wanted good players around him,” Judge explained.
Judge credited his teammates after being awarded unanimous MVP, joining Mickey Mantle as the first Yankees to do so since 1956.
“You look at every single one of my teammates in that room and know that each and every single one of them impacted me in a way that put me in that position,” Mr. Judge said. “So it’s always going to be a team award in my book.”
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