Aaron Judge spends his first day as a free agent cheering wife at NYC marathon

Aaron Judge spent his first day of MLB free agency in New York. He cheered his wife Samantha Bracksieck, who was running in the 2022 New York City Marathon, at the finishing line and presented her with a participation medal.

The couple’s appearance at the event sent some positive signal to the Yankees fans, who are rattled due to no clarity over Aaron Judge’s next move. Designated hitter and outfielder Giancarlo Stanton also accompanied the Yankees slugger to the event.

Aaron Judge affectionately hugged his wife Samantha as soon as she crossed the finish line. They gave each other a sweet hug. She completed the 26-mile run in 4:12:22. Among 50,000 people who took part in the race, there was Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher and Chelsea Clinton, daughter of ex-US President Bill Clinton.

Samantha did her masters in kinesiology. Her 2017 thesis “Posterior Elbow Angle During the Movement Phase of Throwing in Relation to the Susceptibility of UCL Injury in Major League Baseball Players” was highly appreciated. It throws light on elbow ligament injuries among baseball players.

They married in Hawaii last December, and a series of pictures taken after their 26.2-mile trip through the beautiful islands showed them smiling and deeply in love with each other. They have been together since their days in high school and in Fresno State University in California. She has been by his side for much of his MLB career, including the regular season of 2022, when Judge made history by breaking Roger Maris’ American League home run record at Globe Life Field.

Before that historic October day in Arlington, TX, when Aaron Judge hit his 62nd home run against the Rangers, Samantha had been to several games with Judge’s parents, Patty and Wayne, in the hopes of being in the front row for history. Judge later thanked his family and friends for always being there for him after he broke an MLB record.

“Getting a chance to do this, with the team we’ve got, the guys surrounding me, the constant support from my family who been with me through this whole thing … it’s been a great honor,” Judge told then.

Samantha stood by Judge throughout the season. “My wife has been with me through it all and she’s calm as a cucumber, that’s for sure,” the power hitter said to the New York Post after his record.

Even though Aaron Judge and the Yankees made it to the playoffs at the end of the regular season, they were swept by the Astros in the ALCS. The Astros went on to win the World Series by beating the Phillies in Game 6 on Saturday.

With 2023 in mind, the Yankees have made it clear that they’d love to keep Aaron Judge. Yankees GM Brian Cashman knows how important is the power hitter for the team and left it to the Yankees owner to set a limit of money they can offer to the slugger.

“We’d love to be able to bring Aaron Judge back,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said Friday at the team’s end-of-the-season press conference. “The career path he’s currently on is Hall-of-Fame-like.

[There would be] nothing better than to have him continue to man right field for us and impact us both on and off the field the way he has thus far.”

Meanwhile, the Yankees are likely to face challenges from the San Francisco Giants, the Texas Rangers, and the LA Dodgers in retaining their most valuable player.

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