Brian Cashman's statement on Aaron Judge MVP is rich when recalling lowball contract

With New York Yankees megastar Aaron Judge officially bagging his third American League MVP trophy, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman felt the need to release a statement. The Yankees' social media pages published that statement on the morning of Nov. 14 (alongside one from Yanks manager Aaron Boone), and it led to plenty of sighs and cackles from the fan base.

In a nine-line tribute to Judge that can be described as soulless, sentimental drivel (and may very well have been A.I.-generated), Cashman's official statement revolved around recycled, stale concepts like "rarefied air" and "once-in-a-generation player" to communicate absolutely nothing new or meaningful.

The waste of a statement ended with the heartwarming revelation that Judge has "blossomed into one of the sports' greatest superstars". Touching.

And while the statement itself in a vacuum would be worthy of rolled eyes, Yankees fans were even more disdainful of its existence based on Cashman's history with Judge, most notably in the way that Cashman infamously lowballed Judge on a $213.5 million extension offer heading into the 2022 season and then leaked that offer to the press despite Judge's (reported) specific request not to.

Brian Cashman's statement on Aaron Judge was meaningless and fake, much like his dynasty-building abilities as a GM

Maybe Hal Steinbrenner would have been a better choice to pen a Judge MVP tribute. After all, it was Steinbrenner who acted as the last line of defense for the Yankees when the San Diego Padres had all but won a bidding war for Judge prior to the 2023 season.

With Cashman rendered useless and idle in the battle to keep Judge in early December of 2022, Steinbrenner salvaged the situation with a late night phone call by upping the Yankees' contract offer to Judge and warding off San Diego. A few weeks later, Judge was signing his new Yankees deal (nine years, $360 million) and Steinbrenner named him Yankees captain shortly thereafter.

Steinbrenner's work effectively placed an invisibility cloak over Cashman's incompetence in the moment, but the question still persisted (to this day), why does everyone in the baseball world besides Brian Cashman seem to understand how singular Judge is? Should we also assume that Cashman would have tried to negotiate a cheap extension for Shohei Ohtani, if Ohtani were a Yankee in 2022? How about Barry Bonds or Babe Ruth?

Once upon a time, Cashman stepped into the role of New York's GM in the middle of a Yankees dynasty that resembled what Ohtani's Los Angeles Dodgers are pulling off right now. But Cashman failed to keep that train rolling into the new millennium because he for whatever reason got away from the basic truth that the modern Dodgers embrace: to win bigger than anyone else, be willing to spend bigger than anyone else.

Bargaining your way to a World Series title isn't going to get it done, and it also happens to be a terrible look when you're at the helm of the most powerful franchise in baseball history. Judge, for one, deserves better. So do Yankees fans.