Last night, MLB announced the winners of the MVP title in the National and in the American. In both cases, the logic was finally respected: Paul Goldschmidt won the honor in the National while Aaron Judge beat Shohei Ohtani in the ballot in the American.
I dare to believe that no one was holding their breath too much at this level, but hey.
After getting his trophy, Judge took the time to chat a bit with the media. Obviously, he took the time to look back a little on his season and he wanted to give a little love to his teammates, without whom he considers that he would not have been named MVP.
From the great Judge, all that.
That said, not surprisingly, the questions were not limited to the honor he had just won. After all, need I remind you that he is currently free as air and is probably the most coveted free agent on the market today?
Judge has lent himself to the game, and listening to him speak, one quickly notices one thing: his priority really seems to be to find the most favorable place for him to win. We feel that he is disappointed that he never succeeded with the Yankees and he wants to end up winning the World Series.
As he explains, it is through a team with a winning mentality and culture that he judges such a scenario to be most likely. He wants to put himself in the best possible position to have a championship ring on his finger one day or another.
And for that reason, Judge, who has spoken with a few teams since the market opened, says he’s open to signing his next contract relatively quickly. After all, if it can help his club get other big chunks, he sees it as an advantage.
These remarks are not unlike those of the owner of the Yankees, Hal Steinbrenner, who had said recently that he had money for Judge, but also for other big free agents. We want to keep Judge coming back, and if we’re able to get other big names to back him up, that becomes another big selling point.
Could it go through one of the big shortstops, who have been increasingly tied to the Yankees over the past few days?
The Yankees know the pressure to keep Judge is enormous. After all, he is the face of the franchise, he is ideal to manage the New York market and he has just had a historic season. We have to go to great lengths to give him reason to stay in town.
Moreover, Brian Cashman revealed last night that the Yankees have submitted a new contract offer to the Judge from training camp. Obviously, it hasn’t been accepted yet, but both Judge and the Yankees say positive discussions have taken place between the two parties.
In fact, the ball is in the Judge’s court from now on, he who can decide his future. But clearly, a return to New York is not an impossible scenario if the Yankees give him reason to stay.
Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner are playing big right now, and it remains to be seen if they end up getting burned or winning the day.
