Aaron Judge has recently been offered a 213.5 million dollar contract for an extended seven years with the New York Yankees, which is one of the largest contract offerings in MLB history. It is a no-brainer; take the money and set yourself up for life. What has surprised most people is the fact that Judge rejected the offer!

213.5 million dollars is an astronomical amount of money! In Aaron Judge’s case, he would be making 30.5 million dollars per year. For the average American, that would be the dream scenario. So why would he turn down 213.5 million dollars? There could be many answers to this question, and only Aaron Judge truly knows the reason. Many people are saying it is because Judge believes he is worth more, and in this day and age where betting on yourself as a free agent is much more common than it used to be.

In the new era of baseball, we are seeing many players opt into free agency for one collective reason: the promise of more money. Money is what dictates all professional sports these days; whenever an athlete has a chance to make more money, it is more often than not that we see the athlete “chasing” the prize. I personally don’t believe that Judge is chasing money because it is very clear that he cares about the city of New York. He has played seven seasons for the team, so he has to have a strong connection with the city and its people; however, this may prompt some fans to question why he didn’t accept the contract if this is true.

Regardless of his reasoning, if I was in his shoes, I would have accepted it not only because of the almost certain financial security for life, but also because the Yankees are going to be World Series contenders again next year and many seasons to come. However, things are not always as they appear and there are potentially other circumstances that the public is not aware of.

The Yankees have had a strong team for the past decade, especially when Judge was added to the lineup. Despite the powerful rosters of the Yankees in the past ten years, they have failed to reach the World Series in that time span. Judge may be ready to move on to a team that is willing to pay more and provide him with a better opportunity to attain that sought after ring. If Judge decides to in fact stay with the Yankees, we may see the Yankees in the World Series at some point. But there is one thing that is a certainty regardless of where he ends up: after coming off a sixty-two home run season, Judge is setting up to be a game-changing player for the upcoming seasons no matter where he lands.