The New York Yankees re-sign the reigning American League MVP Aaron Richterreported MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. It’s a nine-year, $360 million deal. tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The agreement is pending completion of a physical test.
It is the largest free agent contract in MLB history Bryce Harper‘s previous record of $330 million. The $40 million average annual value on contract sets a new record among position players, trailing only the corresponding $43.33 million AAVs of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander – both have short-term deals – for the biggest in MLB history. Richter is represented by Page Odle from PSI Sports Management.
The judge’s decision to stay in New York ends a week-long saga in which he has been fixated mostly on the Yankees and Giants, his two most serious admirers since he turned down a qualified Yankees offer. The Giants reportedly made a similar offer yesterday, as did Morosi tweets that he turned down higher offers after ultimately deciding he’d rather remain a Yankee. Judge is now likely to spend his entire career in Yankee pinstripes as the new contract will run through his season at age 39.
The judge famously backed him going into the 2022 season, rejecting a seven-year, $213.5 million extension offer from the Yankees in spring training. General Manager Brian Cashman took the virtually unprecedented step of releasing the terms of the Yankees’ final bid to the public, leaving no doubt about the numbers on offer. The judge’s gamble drew some trials, but he ended up securing two more years and a whopping $146.5 million — a 68.6% increase over the originally proposed guarantee.
There’s more to come.