Boston Red Sox, Aaron Judge would be a match made in Yankees misery

While the elimination of all AL East teams during the playoffs this year hasn’t been able to wash away all the anger from the disappointing 2022 Boston Red Sox season, it sure has been fun to watch. And now for the sweetest of all, the first-seed New York Yankees, the one we had to hear about all year from the national media as a World Series shoe-in, have been swept from the playoffs.

Now it’s time for the Red Sox to act quick and kick our hated rival while they’re down: let’s steal Aaron Judge.

The thought of Aaron Judge wearing a Red Sox uniform, belting homers over the Monster and onto Lansdowne street – however delusional it may prove to be – has to make you giddy if you’re a Red Sox fan.

The Boston Red Sox have a chance to hit the New York Yankees where it hurts

As I’m sure you’re all aware at this point, the newly minted American League home-run king is now able to sign with any MLB club he so chooses.

The Yankees, in a very Red Sox-esque move, failed to extend their team’s most valuable commodity. In my view, though, the failure to resign Judge has less to do with an inadequate front office (as is the case when the Red Sox fail to sign their stars) and more to do with Judge’s desire to be out of New York.

New York offered Judge a seven-year $213.5 million extension in the offseason that he declined. The average annual value of that contract ($30.5 million) would place Judge 13th on the list of highest paid players in the MLB, a notch above Mookie Betts. A few players of lesser talent than Judge are higher up on that list – Carlos Correa had a .291 batting average this season compared to Judge’s .311 but is paid over $35 million a year.

If Aaron Judge had accepted that deal he would be a well-compensated star in the biggest market possible, but he didn’t accept the deal. That could mean one of two things: he’s looking for the largest contract possible or he doesn’t want to play for the Yankees anymore.

Boston Red Sox chief Baseball officer Chaim Bloom needs to be serious about signing Aaron Judge.

The Boston Red Sox, as many on this site have written, are at a crossroads this offseason, between the Chaim Bloom Tampa Bay style of team-building and the traditional Red Sox style that has won four titles since 2004.

Boston’s always going to have the die-hard Sox fans that will brave through any season and any record, but without some significant changes the Red Sox will lose their casual fanbase.

An Aaron Judge signing is the silver bullet for the Red Sox problems, and probably the one way Chaim Bloom can walk into any Dunkin Donuts in New England without getting chirped incessantly (even though he’s probably a Starbucks guy).

Want your voice heard? Join the Chowder And Champions team!

Write for us!

Not only does he fill a number of holes in the lineup, as an elite defensive outfielder and power hitter, but the symbolic impact of stealing the AL MVP from our biggest rival would be immense for the Boston Red Sox. Imagine the message that would send about ownership and management’s dedication to the team to not only fans but also the players, many of whom begged you for reinforcements at the trade deadline this season.

First, though, they need to take care of Bogaerts and Devers, signing both to the long term deals they deserve.

To the few Yankees fans reading this right now chalking this up to nothing but a pipe dream, read your guy’s quotes from this entire season and try to tell me that he’s said anything close to “I want to retire in pinstripes.”

Then look at Judge’s quotes from a series against Boston in September, calling Sox fans the best in baseball.

Call me crazy, but if you thought of yourself as a Yankee for life you wouldn’t go around complimenting Boston Red Sox fans.

Whatever it takes to make this happen, Chaim Bloom needs to explore because the Red Sox are on the verge of irrelevance, and signing Aaron Judge is the way to solve that.