Yankees officially announce Aaron Judge deal, press conference scheduled for Wednesday

On Tuesday afternoon, the Yankees finally made their marriage to Aaron Judge official.

The team formally announced the outfielder’s return, saying they’ve signed him for the next nine years. The Yankees will hold a press conference on Wednesday morning to make the whole thing even more official.

For those who were living under a rock, Judge hit an American League-record 62 home runs last season, earning his first MVP, third Silver Slugger and fourth All-Star nod. In addition to finishing atop the home run leaderboard, Judge also led all of Major League Baseball in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, runs scored, total bases, wRC+ and Wins Above Replacement.

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The result was the nine-year, $360 million contract that will make Judge the highest-paid position player of all time. With Harrison Bader now manning center field, Judge can go back to being the everyday right fielder, something that should help his six-foot-seven frame age a bit more gracefully.

Judge’s list of awards from the 2022 season also include the Hank Aaron Award, a spot on the All-MLB first team, and Player of the Year honors from Sporing News, Baseball America and the MLB Players Association. Judge, 30, is now under contract with the Yankees through 2031, which will be his age-39 season.

In his most recent showing, Judge went a miserable 1-for-16 against the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series, walking only once and striking out four times. During his 157 regular season games, though, he was sublime. Judge’s .311/.425/.686 slash line is the stuff of legends. Barring a truly remarkable performance from somebody else, Judge’s season will go down as the best contract year in the history of the sport.

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He now has 360 million pieces of evidence supporting that claim.