Still no extension for Yankees' Aaron Judge as sides can't agree to deal to avoid arbitration

DUNEDIN, Fla. – The Yankees announced early Tuesday night they had reached one-year contract agreements with 11 of their 12 arbitration-eligible players.

But the one with whom they didn’t happens to be their biggest star.

As of late Tuesday, Aaron Judge and the Yankees had not agreed to a deal and it was not yet clear if the sides would be headed for an arbitration hearing or if they were working on an extension.

General manager Brian Cashman expressed in November at the GM meetings the club’s desire to extend Judge, the de facto face of the franchise who can become a free agent after this season, something he repeated at the start of spring training. Owner Hal Steinbrenner, speaking last week, said the club planned to engage with Judge’s representatives “soon” on an extension without specifying.

Judge, in his spring training kick-off news conference on March 15, said he would not engage in extension talks after the regular season started, which essentially set  April 7, when the Yankees open against the Red Sox at the Stadium, as a deadline to get one done.

A source confirmed the Yankees, who under Cashman rarely see the inside of an arbitration hearing room, filed at $17 million while Judge, who made just over $10 million last season, filed for $21 million.

The last player the Yankees went to an arbitration with was reliever Dellin Betances. The righty filed for $5 million while the Yankees offered $3 million. The arbitration panel ruled in the Yankees’ favor. 

Monty roughed up

Jordan Montgomery wasn’t sweating it, but he wasn’t happy about it either.

The lefthander, his place in the Yankees’ rotation already secure, was hammered in his first spring outing of the year, allowing three runs and six hits over one-plus innings of a 9-3 loss to the powerful Blue Jays, who threw out a lineup that looked similar to the one they’ll trot out on Opening Day.

“I wanted to work on my fastball location and it got a little wild trying to overthrow,” said Montgomery, who went 6-7 with a 3.83 in 30 starts last season, the unimpressive win total a product of getting the worst run support of any Yankees’ starter. “I threw a lot more fastballs than I normally would have, had a lot of two-strike counts and I was still throwing fastballs. It’s just a spring training game.”

Veteran pitchers will go into a spring training game planning to work on a specific pitch, results the last thing on their mind. CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte are among many Yankees over the years to do so.

Which isn’t to mean Montgomery came away pleased with the outing.

“Half maybe (were good),” Montgomery said of his fastball. “I had some good rips today, had some really bad ones.”

He added: “I’m always a competitor so I’m going to be upset about it. I’ll probably be the first person at the field tomorrow to get on a mound and feel what I need to feel. I threw strikes, I was aggressive with my fastball and it still wasn’t moving. Keep working.”

Tough lineup

The Blue Jays, the favorite of many to win the AL East, outhit the Yankees, 13-6, Tuesday, with Vlad Guerrero Jr., who terrorized Yankees’ pitching pretty much all of last season, leading the way with three hits.

Wild times

Aroldis Chapman nearly beaned the first hitter he faced, Joey Gallo, during his first live batting practice session of the spring, with the outfielder ducking away at the last moment. Gallo called it a day afterward, declining to step back in against the closer. Aaron Judge, among the hitters Chapman faced late Wednesday morning at Steinbrenner Field, followed Gallo and, as a joke, first stepped into the lefthanded batter’s box before stepping into the righthanded one.

Roster doings

Following Tuesday’s game, the Yankees optioned RHP Luis Medina to Double-A Somerset, OF Everson Pereira to High-A Hudson Valley and RHP Yoendrys Gomez to Single-A Tampa.