Brian Cashman talks about not talking about Aaron Judge contract talks
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge after his walk-off three-run home run against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Brian Cashman said he wasn’t aware Aaron Judge had taken exception to the Yankees general manager revealing the terms of his rejected contract extension at the beginning of the season, adding that if there are further in-season talks, they won’t be aired in a public forum.
In the hours leading up to Opening Day, Cashman told reporters the team had offered Judge a contract extension of seven years, $213.5 million, in addition to whatever he was set to make this year. Front offices very rarely spell out the terms of contracts, and general managers and agents generally rely on leaks to get the information out. Cashman said then that he decided to come forward for the sake of transparency, but Judge later told reporters that he’d hoped the conversations would remain private.
“If he did [have a problem with it], I didn’t pay attention to it,” Cashman said Wednesday before the Yankees' matinee against the Blue Jays. “All that stuff feels like a month and a half ago now, so I don’t really think I need to reiterate it, but yes, his camp knew all about it, so I assume he knew all about it. And if you’re going to say he was upset by it, I’m not aware of that, and it certainly doesn’t feel like when I interact with him from then ‘til now.”
Judge, who hit a walk-off, three-run home run in the Yankees' 6-5 win over the Blue Jays on Tuesday, is set to go in front of an arbitrator sometime in the coming months to determine how much he’ll make this season, either $17 million or $21 million. He previously said that he wouldn’t engage in further extension talks with the Yankees in-season, something that will pave the way for free agency. Cashman, though, didn’t quash the possibility of further negotiations.
He also declined to reveal the date of the arbitration hearing.
“We’re not going to talk about it now going forward,” Cashman said. “Whether that means we’re not going to talk, I’m not saying that, but we’re not going to talk about it in this forum. But he’s been great, but that’s no surprise, because he is great.”
Judge, who came into Wednesday hitting .290 with a major league-best 10 homers, hasn’t allowed himself to get distracted by his uncertain future, manager Aaron Boone said.
“It just shows the kind of person and player that he is,” Boone said. “I’m not surprised at all. He’s about this team, he’s about his teammates. I know he loves wearing the pinstripes and he has a lot of team goals in mind. That’s where I knew his focus would be.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
