Aaron Judge reveals surprising plan after $360M deal ends with Yankees

Since making his big league debut in August 2016, Aaron Judge has established himself as the New York Yankees' most influential player, and arguably the best player in the majors as a whole. After enjoying a historic campaign in 2022, the free agent extended his stay in the Bronx through 2031, signing a nine-year, $360 million deal. He was named captain shortly after.

Yankees fans would hope for Judge to continue leading the team for as long as possible, and potentially sign another contract with the Bronx Bombers after his current deal expires in 2031.

As evidenced by Judge's plans, which he revealed to insider Ian O'Connor of The Athletic on Friday, it appears both the player and the fans are on the same page in that regard.

"That’s the plan (playing into my 40's)," Judge said

This is not just wishful thinking on Judge's part. The 33-year-old is well aware of the difficulty of the task he has set out to accomplish, but remains determined to work hard towards it.

"It’s tough, though," Judge added. "I’ve got to be hitting 50 homers all the way into my early 40s. I don’t know. It would be something good to strive for. I never really thought about it, to be honest. I just try to go out there to do my job."

Aaron Judge talks about 'special' feeling of being in the same conversation as some of the Yankees' all-time greats

With 350 home runs to his name already, Aaron Judge is well on his way to surpassing the totals of icons such as Alex Rodriguez (351), Yogi Berra (358) and Joe DiMaggio (361).

When he was reminded of how close he was to surpassing such legendary players in the same conversation with Ian O'Connor, Judge talked about the 'special' feeling of being in such an exclusive club.

"To get near those guys, wow,” Judge said. “That’s a special trio right there. It’s kind of crazy to judge a career against somebody who did it for 20 years and had such a great career, so maybe when I’m done playing, I can look back and see the things that I’ve done. Any sentence with those three guys is special."

Having enjoyed a phenomenal first half of 2025, there is a good chance Judge will already surpass the three aforementioned greats by the time the regular season concludes.

About the author

Raghav Mehta is a baseball journalist at Sportskeeda awaiting results for a Bachelor's in Journalism from Delhi University. He enjoys highlighting the key battles between players at different stages of the game and analyzing the decisive moments upon which they hinge.

One of Raghav's favorite moments, which underscores this, was the Shohei Ohtani vs. Mike Trout clash in the 2023 WBC, where two of baseball's best players faced off against each other in the 9th inning. With the score 3-2 to Japan, Shohei eventually got the strikeout, which was absolute cinema.

Raghav is a Baltimore Orioles fan and is enjoying watching such an exciting young team compete at the top in a very competitive division.

Raghav has loved watching sports for as long as he can remember and realized he was pretty decent at writing his thoughts down at around the age of 14. Combining the two meant he had something he would enjoy doing every day, and he had identified that well before going to college.

Aside from work, Raghav enjoys playing sports, working out and watching movies.

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Edited by Krutik Jain