Jon Heyman burns SF Giants fans with erroneous Aaron Judge tweet

The legend of Arson Judge and the Aaron Judge sweepstakes may haunt SF Giants fans for decades.

With two words, Jon Heyman ignited the hopes of long-suffering SF Giants fans: “Arson Judge.”

he deleted it but the internet will not forget arson judge pic.twitter.com/jG96W0CFvk

— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) December 6, 2022

For seven blissful minutes, Giants fans were fired up. While the Giants’ pursuits of Giancarlo Stanton, Shohei Ohtani, and Bryce Harper all fell just short, this time the boys in black and orange had smoked the mighty Yankees! Finally, the home run hitting torch had been passed from Barry Bonds to Aaron “Arson” Judge.

Sadly, it didn’t last.

Giants say they have not heard on Aaron Judge, My apologies for jumping the gun.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 6, 2022

Like a moth to the flame, the Giants are drawn to slugging outfielders. And like the proverbial moth, they always get burned. The confirmation that Judge was returning to the Yankees simply poured cold water on the team’s dying hopes - every experienced Giants fan knows that when the Giants go after a former or future MVP, where there’s smoke, there’s ashes.

Who do we feel worst for? That would be broadcaster Duane Kuiper, who heard from his son that Judge was a Giant - and then Cole couldn’t reach him to tell him it wasn’t happening. Poor Kuip was sitting poolside, looking forward to a year of “He hits it high…” home run calls, only to wake up and realize he had to start coming up with folksy anecdotes about Mitch Haniger.

My dad is on vacation. I called him to tell him Judge is a Giant, but now I can't get ahold of him to update him on the retraction. 😬😬😬

— cole kuiper (@cmkuiper) December 6, 2022

Arson Judge’s new deal will cost the Yankees $360 million over nine years, almost as much as the $2 billion that the crime of arson costs the United States economy every year. Now the Giants will turn their attention to almost signing Carlos Correa, coming up $15 million short of Carlos Rodón’s contract demands, and providing leverage for Dansby Swanson to get an extra year on his deal with the Atlanta Braves.

As a final sick burn, Heyman revealed the Giants had matched the Yankees 9/360M bid, but Judge wanted to be a Yankee too much.

Hal and Judge worked it out late at night after Judge told Hal he wanted to be a Yankee, then responded to Hal asking what it would take by saying the 9th year (to match SF $360M bid). While SD says it made no formal offer, Judge could have gotten more $ there (and maybe SF too)

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 7, 2022

The Arson Judge pursuit has gone up in smoke, but the SF Giants’ free agency hopes are still flickering. That is, until Heyman snuffs them out again.