Judge arbitration hearing rescheduled

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees and Aaron Judge are not going to get an answer about his 2022 contract on Wednesday, at least not from an arbitrator. Despite reports earlier this season that the sides would meet with the arbitrator on June 22, the hearing is now scheduled for Friday.

So, there are at least two more days for the Yankees to try to avoid what seems like a very poorly-timed battle over $4 million. While the arbitrator is not allowed to take Judge’s 2022 performance into consideration, the Yankees have to. They should consider how Judge is leading this team that is on a historic pace and that this may be their best chance to end their World Series drought before they head into a meeting where they try to convince the arbitrator that he is not worth $21 million.

Judge is not worrying about the hearing.

“Being here with these guys and what we’ve been doing, the past couple months has made it pretty easy just to focus on playing baseball,” Judge said before Tuesday night’s game against the Rays at Tropicana Field. “I get caught up in contract stuff or arbitration stuff but there’s no need, that’s what I got agents for. We got people to handle that kind of stuff.”

Before the season started, Judge turned down a contract extension offer that would have been worth over $230 million and would have included this season. The slugger initially set the Opening Day deadline for negotiations on an extension and a 2022 contract. He and the team were $4 million off when they traded numbers to try to avoid arbitration.