UPDATE 2: WOWWWW. Not only was the original report wrong in its timing, but it was just flat out wrong in the outcome! Aaron Judge is actually re-signing with the New York Yankees.
UPDATE: And now there’s an entirely different kind of wow, because Jon Heyman is TAKING BACK HIS REPORT.
I would love to know what happened, and whether this is just a temporary thing. Usually in these situations, the “news” still winds up happening as originally reported, but sometimes there is DRAMA. And I am here for it.
Obviously Aaron Judge is a disproportionately important part of the free agent class, so everything happening right now has my RAPT attention. As soon as he does sign, a whole lot is going to follow. Stay tuned.
UPDATE 2: Just to add a little more confirmation to the original report being a mistake, the Giants and Yankees both say they haven’t heard anything yet:
***Original post follows.***
The word just dropped from Jon Heyman, and it’s a mild shocker: Aaron Judge is leaving the Yankees.
Here’s the report (since deleted, said “Aaron Judge appears headed to Giants”):
No confirmation elsewhere yet, and no deal numbers reported.
The ramifications from this one are pretty darn hard to predict, because very few actually expected Judge to leave the Yankees. They could quickly pivot to a big arm (Carlos Rodon?) plus a replacement outfielder (Brandon Nimmo?), or they could go for the biggest bat they can get (Carlos Correa?).
On the Giants side of things, though, this could be good news for the Cubs, to the extent the Giants were going to go big on a shortstop if they missed on Judge. Like, it’s POSSIBLE this now leaves the Twins and the Cubs as the most likely destinations for Carlos Correa. (Please.)
I’m gonna have to take a beat and think it over, but I suspect those rumors – or moves! – are going to blow up now very quickly. This is about to get nuts.