Aaron Judge is about to become a free agent. Though he is assured of a bigger pot of gold, the power hitter is looking beyond money. Rivals are aware that Judge won’t leave the Yankees just for money and analysts have floated many ideas about what will influence his choice.
The foremost factor that comes in is how Aaron Judge views the relationship between the Yankees and their fans. During the playoffs, it turned worse very quickly and even fans booed the slugger and blasted him off the field. By the end of the season, some players and even people in the front office didn’t know who the fans were on, as the performance drew their ire.
One executive told Bob Klapisch of NJ Advance Media, “It’s never been this bad.” Reports also emerged that the Yankees players have talked to their agents about their brutal, toxic experience during the playoffs.
Aaron Judge didn’t get much hate from the fans, but that doesn’t mean that the trend line didn’t bother him. He was definitely surprised by how some of his teammates were treated. Unless owner Hal Steinbrenner assures his players, he only knows how big of a job he has ahead of him to keep Aaron Judge.
The owner must create an environment so that Judge could believe the Yankees won’t be bad in 2023 and Yankee Stadium will still be a good place for future free agents to play and won’t turn into a place where the home team gets beaten up by its own fans.
It looks strange but its’ New York. First, most Yankees fans are very dedicated. And let’s be honest, Aaron Judge isn’t just well-known, he’s almost a cult hero. Second, there are some fans who will tell you that they are sick of watching their team being a runner-up, and when they boo, they are not directing their displeasure at a specific Yankee but rather at the general trend that has emerged in the era after George Steinbrenner.
Since their last world championship in 2009, the Yankees have been relegated to staying at home and watching TV while other teams, such as the Giants (three times) and the Red Sox (twice), have won multiple championships. In addition to these teams, the Cardinals, Royals, Cubs, Nationals, and Braves all have championship rings.
With the New York Yankees are struggling to win a title for over a decade, fans in the stands have a good reason to be impatient. They pay a lot of money to see this team play, and they come to the stadium in large numbers. In 2022, the Yankees had the most fans at home games of any team in the American League.
During August’s terrible 10-18 slump, what began as friendly cheering turned into simmering anger. Aaron Judge noticed this, just like the rest of the Yankees. He is not only the leader of the clubhouse but also its eyes and ears.
Joey Gallo developed anxiety problems after backlash from fans and eventually left New York. The left-handed hitter credited the turnaround in his batting record this season to the laid-back vibe and just-baseball philosophy in Los Angeles. No one even thought about the fact that Gallo was not made for New York. The worse he did, the more his teammates, including Aaron Judge, felt bad for him.
The players were also appalled by the manner in which the struggling Aaron Hicks was mocked by chants of “Jo-ey Ga-llo.” Hicks is now the most notorious enemy of the people in the Bronx.
The fact that Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s father had been threatened on social media was upsetting to the other members of the team.
Players say they don’t use Twitter, but many of their family members do. The insults are getting more personal and won’t stop.
Even Aaron Judge wasn’t saved from everything. He got it from the fans at the beginning of the season and again as the Yankees were getting swept in the ALCS. Even though Judge had one of the best regular-season records in the history of the American League, he went 1-for-16 against Houston and was booed as he left the field.
Aaron Judge didn’t seem to be bothered by the treatment. After Game 4, he told reporters, “The booing is nothing new.” But his reaction to the sweep was different. This time, when Judge had a setback in October, he was more logical than emotional. He said goodbye to each reporter in turn, and many of his last words were in the past tense:
“It was fun, wasn’t it? We had some good times.”
The words could have meant nothing, or they could have been in line with Aaron Judge’s decision that his work is done here. He watched the Baby Bombers rise to fame in 2017 and got them as far as he could. Now he can see that they are about to fall. Aaron Judge might think that the boos are a sign of what will happen in 2023. If that’s the case, Steinbrenner’s checks might not be able to save the day.
What do you think about how far fans’ behavior can impact Aaron Judge’s decision to stay?
