There goes the Judge

[packs]

He played mostly two complete seasons before this injury. He’s only played less than 100 games his rookie season and the pandemic season. He was hurt in 2019 but he did make it back for the postseason. You want all you can get out of the guy but he’s not as brittle as some others. I’m thinking of guys like Anthony Rendon and Ellsbury. At least he’s good when he does play. That’s not always the case with guys who come back from injury either.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by packs

He played mostly two complete seasons before this injury. He’s only played less than 100 games his rookie season and the pandemic season. He was hurt in 2019 but he did make it back for the postseason. You want all you can get out of the guy but he’s not as brittle as some others. I’m thinking of guys like Anthony Rendon and Ellsbury. At least he’s good when he does play. That’s not always the case with guys who come back from injury either.

He missed 50 and 60 games in 2018 and 2019 so that's about 1/3 of the season. You're right that his production was there when he played, but that's a significant amount of time to miss. He hasn't been out as much as Stanton and the Yankees have to hope that stays true or it's going to be a long 9 years under his new contract.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Unusual career thus far, with almost half his WAR coming in just those two epic seasons.

[mrreality68]

All The ability but potentially Availability.

Regardless of injury plagued or accidents like this injury

He is an amazing player on both sides of the ball when healthy but people are right to many years that are not full years and this could derail his overall career from how amazing it could be.

Shame the year of his big contract, his year of becoming Team Captain, The year he started with and it is slowly flushing away.

[packs]

I'm just wondering what other choice the Yankees had? I understand the critics when it comes to length of the contract and age, but at the same time how else could things have gone with his contract?

The Yankees couldn't possibly not sign him. The fans would have eaten them alive and the team would also obviously be much worse off.

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by packs

I'm just wondering what other choice the Yankees had? I understand the critics when it comes to length of the contract and age, but at the same time how else could things have gone with his contract?

The Yankees couldn't possibly not sign him. The fans would have eaten them alive and the team would also obviously be much worse off.

Agree, sometimes you just have to re-sign your own players, even though you think its not the smartest move, like the Nats did with Strasburg.

[D. Bergin]

Yanks could have got him much cheaper if they were more aggressive re-signing him a year earlier...but how were they to know he'd have an injury free year, hit 62 HR's and win MVP going away.

They had to take this one on the chin.

Don't worry guys. Hal S. will be just fine. He's got enough Wonder Bread stocked up in his pantry to get through the next two winters...at least.

[packs]

I just feel like the criticisms are out of whack. Judge hit 62 homers and his OPS+ was 212. He was twice as good as the average player in the league.

Even if he put up those numbers again once during the lifetime of his contract, who else in the league is capable of doing that at all?

You can't fault the Yankees for signing him or the price they paid to do it. There wasn't really an alternative for the fan base and there are only a few select players in his class when he's on the field.