The Padres were reportedly cooking up an absolutely insane contract offer for Aaron Judge that MLB would never have allowed to go through.
You’ve got to hand it to the San Diego Padres, they’re are willing to swing for the fences when it comes to contract offers.
They were one of the teams trying to sway Aaron Judge away from New York. Like the Giants, they failed to make a deal, watching the AL MVP return to the Yankees instead.
According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, San Diego was ready to offer Judge a deal so big it would have been rejected by the league.
The Padres wanted to give Aaron Judge $400 million over 14 years
“There is word they were contemplating a deal for $400 million-plus over 14 years that would have taken Judge to 44 years old,” Heyman reported. “However, sources say they would not have been allowed, as MLB would have seen the additional years as only an attempt to lower their official payroll to lessen the tax.”
In the end, Judge accepted a nine-year, $360 million contract from the Yankees, who reportedly matched the Giants’ best offer.
The Padres offer apparently didn’t sway him even though it promised more dollars and more years. Judge told the Padres he “didn’t want to surrender his legacy over dollars,” per Heyman.
San Diego went in knowing they were a longshot but they tried anyways.
The end result is whiffs on guys like Judge and Trea Turner. However, the pitch clearly worked for Xander Bogaerts, who agreed to an 11-year, $280 million deal bringing him to Southern California from Boston.
Obviously, the ultimate goal was to land the biggest fish of them all in Judge but fielding a team with the likes of Bogaerts, Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. means they have some consolations.