According to MLB.com, free agent slugger Aaron Judge is scheduled to meet with the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday.
Besides the New York Yankees, San Francisco is the first team to meet with Judge this offseason, with the Los Angeles Dodgers also expected to make a run at the reigning AL MVP.
Judge’s Bay Area roots have been well documented. The Linden, California native grew up a massive Giants fan while playing college baseball at Fresno State, just three hours from Oracle Park. San Francisco is flush with cap space with several contracts off the books. While Judge is said to be in search of an eight-year deal north of $300 million, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi is adamant that money won’t be an issue, saying:
“From a financial standpoint, there’s nobody that would be out of our capability to kind of meet what we expect the contract demands will be,” said Zaidi. “It’ll just be a question of whether there’s mutual interest and how we put together the best possible team.”
As for the Yankees, they recently presented Judge with a new offer after the four-time All-Star turned down a seven-year, $213.5 million extension before the start of the 2022 campaign.
“We’re in real-time, so we’re on the clock,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. “We’re certainly not going to mess around.”
Needless to say, the Judge sweepstakes are in full force.
FanDuel Sportsbook currently has the Dodgers as odds-on World Series favorites at +550.
