Off Season Thread- 2022-2023

[Scottish]

IMO, you lock him up 9/360 but you front load it. $55 a year for the first 4 years, and then offer an opt out. So his first contract has an AAV of 40 for luxury tax purposes, but he makes 220 in the first 4 years. Now, he would only be making 28 a year if he decided not to opt out, so chances are he wants to opt out/restructure. You restructure the deal to 5/160. Judge gets 4 more million a year, but the Yankees now reduce the AAV to 32 million.

Judge ends up making 380 over the course of the deal and the Yankees have an AAV of 40 for 4 years and then 32 for the last 5. It’s a win win for everyone.

So 9 / 360 not enough you wanna give him the chance to earn more? What happens if he’s awesome for 4 years and then SF offer him 50 per year then ? Opt outs are no good for a team unless it’s 2 ways ie if he’s rubbish you can bin him after X amount of years but no player would sign that. Opt outs only benefit at player surely 9/360 is enough.

[Kinkotheclown]

Judge and 8 rookies?

Pretty much.
Judge with Ice on his knees, on the bench and 9 rookies

[dayners81]

Pretty much.
Judge with Ice on his knees, on the bench and 9 rookies

Gotta love all those rookies around Judge .. good grief

I would advise a little caution with everyone and these leaks and rumors we're hearing about Judge. Judge is the biggest name out there and everyone of these guys, requardless of how acurate or in accurate their info is, are looking for clicks..

What are other team involved leaking? what's Judges camp leaking ?

were very quickly coming to the end of this Judge thing one way or the other and everyone is trying to make every last dollar they can..

I would also suggest that since the Giant and Yankees have extreme interest in 3 huge players, Rodon, Judge and Correa, dis information is also a huge factor.

Obviously my sources aren't as connected as Heyman, Rosenthal or Sherman, but i've heard the exact same thing for the last month from the Yankees side. No one outside a very, very small group of people actually "know " what the offer is.

[dayners81]

Hal is very aware how important the Yankees brand is and how important it is to keep up the brand.
If our homegrown superstar leaves, the brand suffers.
The brand was really run down in the late 80s/early 90s and New York belonged to the Mets. George was banned from baseball and the brand was in bad shape.
Things worked well for the owners with the super cheap Wilpons essentially handing the town to the Yankees.
Cohen will not do that. He knows that the New York market does not operate the same way a small town market works and he's smart enough to know that you have to keep the payroll at max and keep your team relevant.
This competition is going to become intense and it may be for the good of all New York fans.
The FO office will have to accept that there will ALWAYS be a certain amount of sunk costs in being the Yankees (time to cut bait on JD and AH). There is no way we can operate like the Rays. We don't even know how.
I don't mind blowing through the luxury tax, but I'm against losing that International money if we sign a QO player. Outbidding for international free agents is one way we can have pipeline of young talent because we sure aren't very good at coming up with 8th round superstars.
If we do re-sign Judge - and I'm not convinced we will - then you have to accept that in six years we are going to be carrying over 60 million in dead salary between an aging Judge and Stanton who will be sharing the DH position.
Which I think the Yankees need to accept as the cost of doing business because they make a lot more money when the team is operating at max resources.
My real question is how will a guy like Judge - who seems to have actual integrity - be able to handle being ridiculed daily on the back end of that deal when he's a burden on the roster? He's not a sociopath like A Rod. He's actually a decent person who by the way I believe is leaning toward returning to his deep Bay Area roots as he and his wife get ready to start a family. Right now he's torn between a plaque in monument park and love of his family. Don't be surprised if his people win.

great post

[RJYANKS12]

So 9 / 360 not enough you wanna give him the chance to earn more? What happens if he’s awesome for 4 years and then SF offer him 50 per year then ? Opt outs are no good for a team unless it’s 2 ways ie if he’s rubbish you can bin him after X amount of years but no player would sign that. Opt outs only benefit at player surely 9/360 is enough.

It actually benefits the Yankees and the luxury tax. All that matters is the AAV, so if you’re able to manipulate it in the later years, that helps the team. If he’s awesome for 4 years and someone else offers him 50 a year for his aged 35-40 seasons, the yanks hit the lottery. They would have gotten a player worth $50 million AAV, but didn’t have to pay it. Then, they wouldn’t have to pay for the backend. Literally would be the best case scenario.

[dayners81]

How many contract have the Yanks front or backloaded in the last 10yr? Sevy's deal was buying out yrs which is why the salary escalated.

To my knowledge, i don't remember any. DJ is 15 per. Cole is 36per. Rizzo is a straight salary.

If you pay Judge 50 for 4 and 25 for 4, the AAV ends up the same. The way the Yanks bring down AAV is giving an extra yr or 2, like they did with DJ and Cole

[RJYANKS12]

How many contract have the Yanks front or backloaded in the last 10yr? Sevy's deal was buying out yrs which is why the salary escalated.

To my knowledge, i don't remember any. DJ is 15 per. Cole is 36per. Rizzo is a straight salary.

If you pay Judge 50 for 4 and 25 for 4, the AAV ends up the same. The way the Yanks bring down AAV is giving an extra yr or 2, like they did with DJ and Cole

Right, the AAV stays the same, but you put in an opt out. The player will most likely execute the opt out because he doesn’t want to make just 25 million when he could still realistically make 30 million. So the opt out allows you to manipulate the AAV on the backend. The nfl does it all the time to manipulate the salary cap.

[dayners81]

Right, the AAV stays the same, but you put in an opt out. The player will most likely execute the opt out because he doesn’t want to make just 25 million when he could still realistically make 30 million. So the opt out allows you to manipulate the AAV on the backend. The nfl does it all the time to manipulate the salary cap.

gotcha, thats the part i was not getting. thanks

if the info I got is right, Judge is looking for 2 opt outs after yrs 3 and 5.

I believe Hal will go a 9th yr with an overall contract value in the 330-345 ish range.

From a business perspective, Hal's would be making the right move for his bottom line. Judge will likely far exceed his contract value in the early yrs of the deal.

From a baseball stand point of it all, I completely agree with the guys saying no more than 8yrs. That said, if Judge leaves, this franchise is screwed in the short term

[johnnyi]

Judge earned the right to take his time and he deserves to be the talk of the winter meetings. I've thought all along that he will get the maximum exposure by signing a contract during them. I would like to see him get SF final offer on Monday, Hal top it Monday night or Tuesday and Judge sign with the Yankees on Tuesday or Wednesday.

[PJO34]

How many contract have the Yanks front or backloaded in the last 10yr? Sevy's deal was buying out yrs which is why the salary escalated.

To my knowledge, i don't remember any. DJ is 15 per. Cole is 36per. Rizzo is a straight salary.

If you pay Judge 50 for 4 and 25 for 4, the AAV ends up the same. The way the Yanks bring down AAV is giving an extra yr or 2, like they did with DJ and Cole

Cool. Give Judge a 40 year contract worth 360,000,030 with an opt out after 10 years. AAV equals 9,000,000.75. Literally a Yankee for life.

[EAGLES3658]

What decision were they supposed to make?

Guy wasn’t very healthy. They made a fair offer IMO last year. If Judge doesn’t have the year he did, that would have been a reasonable deal

The mistake was talking about it in the press

I think last years offer was fair as well. Just makes you think, how much can a guy realistically raise his value in just one season? The fact that we are going from $240M to $360M in a year should be a major red flag. Judge is another year older and guys have what they call a career year in a contract year all the time. Most teams who sign that guy end up getting burned pretty badly.

[dayners81]

This is an interesting twist. Stanton making noise if Judge doesn't sign, he'll request to be traded.

Stanton believes they will lose the locker room without Judge..

They won't get much of anything in return, but it would free up 22m AAV

If Stanton want's out, who else will ask out? At that point I think you try and move Rizzo around the traded deadline and reset

[EAGLES3658]

This is an interesting twist. Stanton making noise if Judge doesn't sign, he'll request to be traded.

Stanton believes they will lose the locker room without Judge..

They won't get much of anything in return, but it would free up 22m AAV

If Stanton want's out, who else will ask out? At that point I think you try and move Rizzo around the traded deadline and reset

This is even more reason to let Judge walk, or resign Judge and get rid of Stanton anyways and use that money on someone who can actually stay on the field or even play the field.

[dayners81]

I think last years offer was fair as well. Just makes you think, how much can a guy realistically raise his value in just one season? The fact that we are going from $240M to $360M in a year should be a major red flag. Judge is another year older and guys have what they call a career year in a contract year all the time. Most teams who sign that guy end up getting burned pretty badly.

Ok, then what do u do and stay competitive and under 290m?

were at 220 now, so how do you spend 50-70 and still stay competitive?

[rrzubnyy]

This is an interesting twist. Stanton making noise if Judge doesn't sign, he'll request to be traded.

Stanton believes they will lose the locker room without Judge..

They won't get much of anything in return, but it would free up 22m AAV

If Stanton want's out, who else will ask out? At that point I think you try and move Rizzo around the traded deadline and reset

You guys crack me up…

Judge is going nowhere. Stanton is going nowhere…..

Now stop with the nonsense.


Hal is not going to risk losing the fans by not resigning him. He is screwed. It is time to pay the tab.


I’m mean Christ, you already have Rizzo on the block…..