Boston radio host’s Yankees-Aaron Judge take is classic Red Sox propaganda

Comparing apples and oranges … the Boston way! It was only a matter of time before Red Sox fans chimed in on the New York Yankees-Aaron Judge contract situation, and to no one’s surprise, there’s an element of tone-deafness that was to be expected.

According to general manager Brian Cashman, who held a press conference an hour before Opening Day to let the world know the Yankees made an effort to sign their star player before the start of the season, Judge was offered a contract that would’ve paid him $213.5 million over seven years, starting in 2023.

That’s an AAV of $30.5 million, which would’ve made him the second-highest paid outfielder in the game behind Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout. Judge rejected the contract, with reports emerging soon after that he asked for 10 years and $360 million.

Did we mention Judge would be entering his age-31 season come 2023? It’s not like this is a 26- or 27-year-old player with plenty of prime left ahead. Not to mention, Judge has only logged two full healthy seasons since the start of his regular action in 2017.

Meanwhile, in Boston, radio host Lou Merloni decided to bring the Sox into this and claim if this were the Sox and they had offered that amount of money to one of their own star players, they’d be getting “shredded” for being cheap.

There is one big difference here, sir. The Red Sox are cheap and it’s been proven time and time again.

Comparing the Yankees-Aaron Judge situation to anything the Red Sox have done is irresponsible

In fact, the Red Sox are so cheap that they discouraged Mookie Betts from continuing to negotiate and then went ahead and traded him in a salary dump deal to get rid of David Price’s remaining two years and $64 million.

Then, this offseason, they clearly lowballed Rafael Devers and didn’t even bother talking about an extension with Xander Bogaerts. Those three players brought a World Series back to Boston in 2018.

Not only that, the Red Sox had the luxury of negotiating with these players quite literally in their primes. Betts was heading into his age-27 season after his team control ended. Devers is 25 years old. The only outlier is Bogaerts, who is 29, but he was signed to one of the most cost-effective contracts years back at just $20 million per season.

This mostly parallels with Betts’ situation, though, if we’re to be completely fair. And Betts, ahead of his contract year, won a World Series, an AL MVP, five Gold Gloves and five Silver Slugger awards. He was also a five-time All-Star.

Aaron Judge? Three-time All-Star. Two Silver Sluggers. Zero championships. Zero MVPs (though he got screwed in 2017). And a whole lot of time missed due to injury whereas Betts missed an average of just 13.6 games per season from 2015-2019.

The Yankees went above and beyond (within reason) to try and keep Judge in town whereas the Red Sox tried to save every last penny and failed to take into account Betts’ value both on and off the field for the franchise. Not the same scenario, but thanks for playing.

Aaron Judge contract demands might mean he wants to leave Yankees

New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge reportedly wasn't close to signing a seven-year, $213 million offer and wants nine years.