Hal Steinbrenner’s update on Yankees’ pursuit of Aaron Judge means nothing

The questions the New York Yankees will receive about Aaron Judge cannot be avoided, but their answers do not matter. Nothing a word this organization says holds any weight. For years, fans have heard “we’re almost there” and “we think we have a championship-caliber roster” and “a couple things didn’t go our way.”

This time, they had the opportunity to speak with their actions and sign their franchise player. They didn’t. They’ve now allowed him to hit free agency. The $6 billion franchise allowed a “money” decision to get in its way.

So until that mistake is amended by … spending money, fans won’t be holding their breath in response to a Hal Steinbrenner or Brian Cashman “update” on Judge. The only update that’s relevant is Judge being signed to a new contract.

As you can imagine, the last thing anybody needed was a Steinbrenner sit-down interview with Meredith Marakovits on the YES Network in which nothing of substance was revealed.

It’s nice of Hal to pop on television to address the fans — we guess — but this is more of an act of due diligence on his end rather than one of benevolence.

Yankees fans do not care what Hal Steinbrenner or Brian Cashman have to say about Aaron Judge

“I have had more than one conversation with Aaron since the season ended. I’ll leave it at that. Very positive conversations.”

He then followed up with:

“I’ve made it clear that we’re going to do everything we can to [re-sign him].”

Everything we “can”? What else is there to do outside of presenting him with the offer he wants? Does Judge want a night out with the sales team in downtown Manhattan as part of the Yankees’ pitch? What about some free merch from the team store? Is he looking for a vacation in the Mediterranean that the Yankees need to make happen? Does he need to sit down with Cashman and tell the GM that he’s sick of the moves that are being made? Does he need to be wined and dined and apologized to for the first offer the team made him (and then went public with) before Opening Day?

The Yankees of course won’t reveal any of the positive information, though. They’ll just “leave it at that.” They’ll only throw the vibes off as horribly as they possibly can two hours before the start of the season to throw their arms in the air and let the fans know they did all they can to keep Judge, but he rejected their overture.

There’s no desire for dressed up interviews or half answers when speaking with the press. It’s deal or no deal. Better hope the “market price” isn’t too high for Judge, because it definitely feels like that’ll dictate the Yankees’ willingness to follow through here.

Insane ‘column’ from San Francisco media should take Giants out of Aaron Judge race

There's content, and then there's whatever this is. If Aaron Judge is smart, he'll now avoid the San Francisco Giants and stay with the New York Yankees.