Alex Rodriguez Thinks Aaron Judge’s Spectacular Season Will Cost Yankees $150M

Judge passed Rodriguez for the most home runs by a right-handed hitter in team history on Wednesday.

Aaron Judge bet big on himself when he rejected a pre-Opening Day contract extension offer from the Yankees, and Alex Rodriguez believes it will cost the club dearly.

Judge, an MVP frontrunner and impending free agent, crushed his 55th home run of the 2022 season Wednesday afternoon in New York’s first game of a doubleheader against the Twins. The blast surpassed Rodriguez for the most home runs by a right-handed hitter in Yankees history.

#AllRise x 5⃣5⃣ pic.twitter.com/ZAIREZ7idl

— MLB (@MLB) September 7, 2022

Afterward, Rodriguez congratulated Judge – and laid out a few financial expectations for the slugger.

“Doing this all in a contract year, too,” Rodriguez tweeted. “Like I said Opening Day, Judge could be the first $50 [million]/year player. The past 6 months will cost the Yankees an extra $150 [million]. What a performance.”

Time will tell if Judge comes close to Rodriguez’s prolific projections, but the 30-year-old outfielder turned down a seven-year, $213.5 million extension before the season. That would have given him an annual average salary of $30.5 million.

Based on his tweet, Rodriguez believes Judge should get $363.5 million from the Yankees, though that lump sum would pay nearly $52 million per year over seven seasons. As far as the Yankees are concerned, such numbers could fall in the realm of “unreality” that Yankees president Randy Levine recently mentioned on the New York Post’s “The Show” podcast.

“There’s venting and saying stuff that makes no sense at all in the real world,” Levine continued, “and then there’s the real effort, which we’re going to try and do to keep him a Yankee forever.”

Whatever Judge’s market turns out to be, there is doubt that the winter will bring him a better offer than the one he received in April – whether it comes from the Yankees or another team.

MORE:

• Yankees' Oswald Peraza Smacks Three Hits in Yankee Stadium Debut
• Aaron Judge Sets Another Record With 55th Home Run, Keeping Historic Pace
• 'Youth Movement' Playing Key Role on Yankees' Pitching Staff

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