SAN DIEGO – Brian Cashman and the Yankees are like the rest of baseball: they’re still waiting for Aaron Judge.
Cashman arrived at the winter meetings on Monday and said he had spoken with Judge’s agent, Page Odle, earlier in the day, but still had no indication of whether the biggest free agent of the offseason would stay in The Bronx.
“Only one is needed [team] to take him from us,” Cashman said. ‘It’s a danger. We have done it many times and it has happened to us. We will see.”
The Yankees are said to have made an offer of about eight years and $300 million, and while Cashman would not confirm those numbers, the general manager said he has made “a number of offers” since the end of the season and that the “offers are very different.” to be.” than the $213.5 million seven-year extension that the judge rejected on opening day.
Now the Giants, whom Judge met with last month in San Francisco, are seen as the most obvious threat to steal the slugger.
“We’re negotiating hard,” said Cashman, who added that general manager Hal Steinbrenner “puts his money on his sleeve.”
But that, Cashman admitted, “doesn’t guarantee anything.”
Aaron JudgeGetty Images
And he also said that Judge’s camp has given the Yankees no indication that they will come back to them before Judge makes a final decision.
And as negotiations continue, at least some of the Yankees’ off-season plans are on hold, as they need to know how much money they need for Judge or if it will go elsewhere. For now, Cashman said he doesn’t set a TBEN when he needs an outfielder’s decision before he has to look elsewhere.
“You’ve seen in the last 48 hours that people are starting to make decisions,” Cashman said of top free agents like Jacob deGrom to Texas, Justin Verlander to the Mets, and Trea Turner to the Phillies.
“I don’t think we missed any time, but I understand that the longer it takes, the more risk you run,” Cashman said. “It’s easier when we drive it. We don’t drive it. … He has a lot of influence and he has earned that right.”
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Speaking to Giants reporters, Farhan Zaidi, San Francisco’s president of baseball operations, slammed Monday night that talks between the Giants and Judge are “ongoing.”
Zaidi said the team is “very interested” in Judge and that the outfielder’s visit to the team was “very productive.”
It is unknown if Judge met other teams.
MLB.com reported Monday that Judge would be attending these meetings at the Grand Hyatt on Tuesday, but someone close to Judge said Monday night that Judge “wouldn’t be coming at this time.”
Brian CasmanCharles Wenzelberg/New York Post
Aaron Boone said he had spoken to Judge recently, but not about free agency — nor was he sure of Judge’s plans.
Judge was in Tampa Monday night at the Buccaneers-Saints game at Raymond James Stadium, talking to star quarterback Tom Brady in the tunnel before the game.
Cashman said if Judge leaves, the Yankees could turn to the free-agent shortstop market, which still consists of Carlos Correa, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson.
“If Judge signs somewhere else, do we turn around and do something else?” Cashman said. “Are we completely recreating ourselves? I have no idea. That is not what we want to do.”
They want to keep Judge, who set the American League record with 62 home runs last season.
Aaron JudgeGetty Images
Turner, just over a year younger than Judge, signed an 11-year, $300 million deal with the Phillies on Monday.
How that affects the length of Judge’s deal – if at all – remains to be seen and there is a belief that the Yankees would go to a ninth year to keep Judge – just as they did three years ago when they signed Gerrit Cole.
“We’ll see how it all plays out,” Cashman said. “The way this winter is going can take us down a lot of different roads that we didn’t expect. My phone has been much more active than [before]. Things developed slowly and now they are opening up a bit.”
– Additional reporting by Jon Heyman
