The Yankees and Aaron Judge were set to enter a salary arbitration hearing Friday after failing to reach an agreement between the $17 million salary the club offered him for 2022 and Judge's request for $21 million.
Ultimately, however, both sides were able to avoid the unpleasant process, settling on $19 million plus incentives before things got too hairy.
The Yankees have avoided arbitration since 2017, when things infamously got ugly with Dellin Betances. Yankees president Randy Levine not only won the hearing against Betances, he publicly humiliated the reliever in a call with reporters after.
“It’s like me saying, ‘I’m not the president of the Yankees; I’m an astronaut,’” Levine said at the time, per The New York Times. “No, I’m not an astronaut, and Dellin Betances is not a closer.”
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While the tone undoubtedly would have been different had the Yankees settled on $17 million with Judge, falling on the $19 million number will allow the Yankees to resume long-term contract negotiations with Judge in the offseason with a clean slate.
No hearing for Yankees and Judge. Very positive development. https://t.co/pJShv8yVIN
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 24, 2022
Judge is in the middle of what is shaping up to be one of the best contract years in MLB history, which he continued Thursday with a walk-off win over the Astros. It's the Yankees' ninth walk-off victory this season.
Walk it off, BAJ 👨⚖️ pic.twitter.com/GY9BOMA9hi
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 24, 2022
Aaron Judge 2022 contract details
In the wake of the settlement, Aaron Judge will earn a base salary of $19 million for the 2022 season, as first reported by MLB.com's Mark Feinsand.
He can earn additional incentives of $250,000 each for winning American League MVP and World Series MVP this year, and his scorching start to the season has him well-positioned to hit the first of those, at least.
Judge is set to become a free agent after the season unless he and the Yankees agree to a new long-term deal.
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Aaron Judge stats for 2021 and 2022
Judge was impressive in 2021, but in 2022 he has been utterly absurd. Here's a look at his numbers year over year.
| Year | G | BA | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI | SO | BB |
| 2021 | 148 | .287 | .373 | .544 | 39 | 98 | 158 | 75 |
| 2022 | 68 | .304 | .379 | .658 | 27 | 53 | 74 | 34 |
As we near the midpoint of the season, Judge is approaching 30 home runs, five more than second-place slugger Yordan Alvarez. His OPS is over 1.000, and above all, he's been clutch. His heroics Thursday were just his latest walk-off hit, and earlier in the week he homered over the catwalk in Tampa Bay. He's doing things no other player in baseball is doing, so it's hard to look at him independent of this season.
Aaron Judge hit the ball over the catwalk at the Trop 😳
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 23, 2022
(via @YESNetwork)pic.twitter.com/URSFQ6FLHi
In 2021, while he was impressive, Judge never got the buzz he's getting this year. Part of that is due to the utter brilliance of Shohei Ohtani, who sucked up all the air in the room of AL MVP discussion last season. Part of that is due to the fact the Yankees weren't the juggernaut they appear to be this season, even with several net negatives in the day-to-day lineup.
While Judge's numbers were strong in their own right last season, this year he's taken things to a different level. It's hard not to look ahead and wonder what his next contract will look like, independent of what the outfielder makes this year.
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Who does Aaron Judge's 2022 salary compare to?
With the settlement of $19 million, here's a look at players Judge's salary this year compares to.
- Liam Hendriks -- $18 million
- Charlie Blackmon -- $18 million
- Eric Hosmer -- $18 million
- Yasmani Grandal -- $18.25 million
- Jose Berrios -- $18.7 million
- Yordan Alvarez -- $19.2 million
- Starling Marte -- $19.5 million
- Kyle Schwarber -- $19.75 million
- Hyun-Jin Ryu -- $20 million
- Nick Castellanos -- $20 million
- Alex Bregman -- $20 million
- Xander Bogaerts -- $20 million
Judge falls tidily in this tier of players with his $19 million salary. While one can argue he's worth more, it behooved both the Yankees and Judge -- who previously stated he was anticipating his hearing -- to get this done so they could look ahead to his next deal, whatever it may be.
