Aaron Judge stands in the dugout ahead of Game 1...

Aaron Judge stands in the dugout ahead of Game 1 of baseball's American League Championship Series between the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022, in Houston.  Credit: AP/Kevin M. Cox

Free agent outfielder Aaron Judge made clear just before the start of this regular season that there would be no hometown discount when he turned down the Yankees $213.5 million extension offer.

This week, the Yankees may get an idea of how much of a pull Judge’s actual hometown – or to be more accurate, his hometown team – will be.  

Judge, who grew up a passionate Giants fan in Linden, Calif., which is roughly 95 miles from San Francisco, was scheduled to meet with the club this week, the meeting occurring perhaps as early as Tuesday.

Specifics were not immediately known, not a surprise as the preference of Judge and his representation is to keep all talks as private as possible (that was among the reasons Judge was so irritated at the Yankees making their offer to him public on Opening Day).

“Just visiting some family and friends, that’s about it,” Judge, carrying a backpack and two small travel bags, said with a wide smile inside what appeared to be a Bay Area hotel in a video posted to Twitter Monday night by MLB Network.

Judge, awarded the American League MVP last week in a landslide (he captured 28 out of a possible 30 first-place votes) after hitting an AL-record 62 homers this season, has been coy about his approach to free agency since the Yankees’ season ended in a four-game sweep at the hands of the Astros in the ALCS.

“So far, so good,” Judge said Thursday night during his MVP conference call with the media, characterizing his off-season conversations so far with managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner. “I’ve had some positive talks with Hal after the season. Really looking forward to getting this whole free agency process going. It's something that not a lot of baseball players really get, this opportunity to kind of choose where they want to go…it's going to be a fun process that my family and I will definitely enjoy.”

Judge has a home in Tampa, where the Yankees hold spring training, but the outfielder also is an unabashed homebody who enjoys spending time with family and friends in Linden.

Industry-wide the expectation remains that Judge – who turns 31 in April and does have another offer in hand from the Yankees, general manager Brian Cashman said last week – will end up back in the Bronx and that still is the safe way to bet.

But the Giants, coming off a disappointing 81-81 season that followed what they hoped was a breakout 107-55 season in 2021, are a legitimate threat.

There are realistically just a handful of teams with the financial muscle to compete with the Yankees for Judge and the Giants without question are one of them (the Dodgers, Mets, Phillies, Red Sox, Cubs and Cardinals would also be included that group).

Giants president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, said at last week’s GM meetings in Las Vegas indications he’s received from team ownership is he has the go-ahead to flex some of that monetary muscle.

“I don’t think, from a financial standpoint, there’s anybody that would be out of our capability to meet what we expect the contract demands will be,” said Zaidi, speaking in general terms and not specifically about Judge. “And then it will just be a question of whether there’s mutual interest.”

Judge’s interest level in the Giants is not yet known but he did lay out his top priority.

“For me, I want to win,” Judge said. “I’ve come pretty close with the Yankees . . . My ultimate most important thing is I want to be in a winning culture and be on a team that's committed to winning. Not only for the remainder of my playing career, but I want a legacy to kind of live on within the organization. It's just first and foremost about being in a winning culture and a winning future.”

The Yankees, though without a World Series title or appearance since 2009, certainly offer a winning culture, but there will be competition in that regard. As Zaidi said last week, he’s free to pursue top talent on the market. And not just Judge, who discloses his true feelings to only a chosen few, which does not include the media or members of the Yankees’ front office, who are in the dark on that as much as anyone.  

“I've absolutely conveyed that I want him to be a Yankee for the rest of his life," Steinbrenner said last week at the owners’ meetings in New York. "No doubt about that. He knows that.”

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