There’s a good chance that the New York Yankees and other teams involved in the Aaron Judge sweepstakes will learn something about his status here soon.
Most recent reports have Judge seeking out what would be a record-breaking nine-year contract in MLB free agency. In addition to his current Yankees team, two NL West rivals in that of the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers are in on the single-season American League home run leader.
Yankees front office head Brian Cashman is all in on retaining Judge. But he also has to prepare for backup options should the slugger leave in free agency.
According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of those backup plans could be to acquire star Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds who just recently requested a trade.
Reynolds, 27, would certainly be an interesting backup option should the Pinstripes lose Judge in free agency. We’re talking about someone who is under team control through the 2023 season at a cost of a mere $6.75 million.
While Reynolds doesn’t compare to what Judge brings to the table from a power perspective, he’s still a solid top-of-the-order bat. The outfielder hit .302 with a .912 OPS in 2021 before seeing his numbers decline a tad this past season.
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Over the course of the past two seasons, Reynolds has notched 256 starts at centerfield. Judge is a more natural rightfielder, but was forced to start 74 games at center due to some limited options for the Yankees. At least from this perspective, Reynolds would make a nice “replacement.”
The question here is whether New York would want to exhaust the prospect capital it would be required to land Reynolds from Pittsburgh. That would likely include one top-10 prospect and a few other pieces.
The other option here if Judge were to leave is free agency. Instead of sending prospects, New York uses the money it saves by failing to retain Judge on a replacement. Brandon Nimmo (New York Mets) and Mitch Haniger (Seattle Mariners) are two of the top options in a market that is bland when it comes to the outfield. Re-signing Andrew Benintendi could also make sense.
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There’s also reports that the Yankees are interested in some of the top shortstops on the MLB free agent market. That includes Carlos Correa (Houston Astros) and Xander Bogaerts (Boston Red Sox).
Either way we spin it, the New York Yankees will have options to add to their lineup should Judge make the decision to sign with another team. Of that group, Reynolds could make the most sense.