Aaron Judge’s new nine-year deal gives him a chance to join pantheon of Yankees legends
If Judge were to stay in the Bronx for the entirety of his new deal, that would take him through his age 39 season — typically around (or past) the point where many MLB players retire.
The massive extension gives the 30-year-old a good chance to join fellow Yankees legends Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter as players to spend their entire careers in New York.
Each of the aforementioned five players are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
DiMaggio and Mantle both won three AL MVPs, Gehrig won two and Jeter and Rivera didn’t earn the hardware but had plenty of other accolades to make up for it.
Judge just won his first AL MVP in his sixth full season, but is also a four-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger award winner and was the 2017 AL Rookie of the Year.
One thing that the California native hasn’t done yet that each member of the iconic quintet did multiple times during their playing days is win a World Series title.
The latter pair won the Fall Classic in 1996 and then three in a row from 1998 through 2000, with one final title in 2009.