Yankees: Aaron Judge won’t participate in Home Run Derby

Despite MLB incentivizing the Home Run Derby winner with a cool $1 million dollar bonus (up from $150k), Yankees superstar Aaron Judge says he won’t partake in July’s festivities.

Aaron Judge received a $62k raise for the 2019 season. And while that increased his overall salary to $684,300, he’s an extreme bargain for the Yankees — at least until next season when he is arbitration eligible for the first time.

However, with Judge’s extensive list of endorsement deals (Pepsi, Fanatics, Adidas; the list goes on), he isn’t exactly hurting for money.

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Which is why the 27-year-old former Rookie of the Year can turn down a probable invite to this July’s Home Run Derby, set to take place in Cleveland on July 8.

Having slugged 83 total home runs in just 294 big league games, Judge is no stranger to the long ball. Only able to suit up in 112 games in 2018 due to a broken hamate bone, Judge still slugged 27 homers.

Yet even Major League Baseball seriously upping the ante, cash-wise, for the best home run hitters in the game to participate in the derby, couldn’t persuade No. 99 to throw his hat in the ring. As Judge told Anthony Rieber of Newsday:

"“Maybe if the All-Star break was a week long and I actually had a break, I would be more enticed to do it,” he said. “But the money doesn’t change it.”“(The 2017 Home Run Derby) affected me because I hurt my shoulder,” he said. “But my swing-wise, no. I was just taking BP. That was probably the worst thing having to hear every single day, people saying, ‘Did it affect you?’ Nah, it was a day of BP. It doesn’t really affect me. If I didn’t get hurt, it would have been a different story.”"

Having already won the derby back in ’17, Judge is in no rush to reclaim his crown. However, the face of the Yankees did mention that if the All-Star Game ever makes it way back to the Bronx, he’d consider giving it another go.

While the old Yankee Stadium last hosted the Midsummer Classic back in 2008 (its final season), perhaps Judge will get another crack sometime in the early part of the next decade. Dodger Stadium will play host in 2020.