All Rise! The court is now in session! MVP Aaron Judge has signed with the New York Yankees.

The 2022 American League Most Valuable Player has decided to stay in the Bronx. On Wednesday, December 7th, Judge agreed to a 9-year-$360 million deal as first reported by MLB Network’s Jon Morosi. Judge went to the MLB (Major League Baseball) Winter Meetings on Tuesday, December 6th hoping to talk to teams. He had brief conversations with the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees. Those were the two teams he left as options.

While other teams reportedly made similar offers, The San Francisco Giants offered Judge a $360 million deal. Judge grew up close to San Francisco and was a longtime Giants fan. This was one of the advantages the Giants had over the Yankees when battling it out for the MVP. However, 161st Street in the Bronx has been home to Judge for the past 7 years. To have the whole city of New York have your back is very rare for Yankees players. A guy of this stature has not been seen in New York since “The Captain” Derek Jeter. Is it time to make Judge the next Yankees captain? His stats sure do help out that conversation. In 2022, Judge put up one of the best slash lines ever by a non-steroid user. He batted .311 with 131 runs batted in. Judge led the league in HR(home runs), RBIs (runs batted in), WAR (wins above replacement), TB (total bases), OBP (on-base percentage), XBH (extra base hits), runs scored, and many others. The most important of those stats being his 62 bombs he crushed. Those 62 broke the American League record of 61 set in 1961, previously held by Roger Maris. This was a huge accomplishment that deserves a contract from the Yankees.

Judge came off a good 2021 season and declined a deal of $213 million before the 2022 season. He declined that deal knowing that he could get hurt or have a bad season and lose his chances of getting a huge contract like that. He took the ultimate bet on himself and he hit the jackpot!