Aaron Judge’s wife played huge role in his eye-watering New York Yankees contract

Aaron Judge revealed that his wife, Samantha Bracksieck, encouraged him to pursue a new deal with the New York Yankees before signing his eye-watering contract.

Judge was available for free agency ahead of the 2023 season and was the subject of reported interest by the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants. The latter reportedly offered him a contract before the Yankees acted to ensure the slugger remained with the team, and with a lucrative pay bump too, signing what at the time was the largest free-agent deal in Major League Baseball history - a $360million, nine-year contract.

The 32-year-old appeared on a recent episode of the “Casa De Klub” podcast where he admitted that Samantha had encouraged him to call team owner Hal Steinbrenner when contract talks were at a stalemate. Judge was asked whether the Yankees had informed him ahead of their announcement that he would be made captain.

“I didn’t hear a whisper of it, not a word leading up to it,” Judge replied. “It’s pretty surreal. For me, I never played the game to be that, to be the next captain. I just play to play. I play for my city, I play for the fans, I play for my family, I play for my teammates.

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“It’s funny. I was in California, Sam and I were headed to Hawaii to celebrate our anniversary. We had a flight at 8 a.m., so 2 o’clock in the morning, 3 o’clock, we’re just staying up, we’re going back and forth about different offers from different teams. ‘What do you want to do?’ And I’m telling her: ‘I want to stay in New York. I don’t want to go anywhere else.’

“The conversations with New York really weren’t going anywhere. She was like, ‘Call Hal, just call him up. Tell him how you’re feeling. Tell him what you think.’” Judge explained that he messaged Steinbrenner while the Yankees owner was on vacation overseas at the time, but he told Judge to give him a call.

“So we call him and I’m just kind of laying it out there, like, ‘Hey, I don’t want to go anywhere. This is where I want to be if you can just add one more year to the deal. I’m set. I’m not looking for anything more, I just want one more year. I want to play this game for a long time. And he’s like, ‘That’s it?’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah’ — and he’s like, ‘Alright, sounds good.’

“And then all of sudden he’s like, ‘Oh by the way, we’re also going to make you the next Yankees captain,’” the six-time All-Star recalled, adding that Steinbrenner said he would carry on the legacy of Yankees captains such as Thurman Munson and Derek Jeter. “I was more speechless about that than hearing about a nine-year deal. Sam was hitting me like, ‘You gotta be saying something!’ It was special.”

Last year, the Yankees finished fourth in the AL East and missed out on the postseason. However, this year, the Yankees are second in their division and are looking set to reach the playoffs.