The Giants didn’t land Aaron Judge, but not for lack of trying.
San Francisco reportedly made an offer to the reigning American League MVP worth $360 million — the same total he’s returning to the Yankees for. They also hosted Judge for a meeting in San Francisco the week of Thanksgiving, one president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said he felt good about.
Zaidi told reporters in San Diego that roughly 30 team employees were involved in pitching Judge. NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic has reported that the meeting included a tour of Oracle Park and the Bay Area, putting Judge in contact with Stephen Curry, dinner at The Gotham Club, and an introduction with one of Judge’s childhood favorites Rich Aurilia.
Aurilila, joining the Papa & Lund Show Thursday, added new color to the pitch.
“I was asked the day before, I got a text from Larry Baer asking me if I would come and help them represent the ball club and the organization — based on the fact Aaron Judge said that I was a guy he watched growing up,” Aurilia said on Papa & Lund. “One, I was honored to be involved in it, just to be included in the organization. But also that a guy like Aaron Judge watched me growing up. Usually I get ‘Oh, I watched Bonds and Kent and JT Snow.’ So that was pretty cool. So I agreed and I told Larry I’d show up. Did a little pre-dinner thing at the Cloud Club out there in left field.”
Aurilia arrived to the ballpark early to meet with Baer, he said. He learned that the team had taken Judge out during the day to look at neighborhoods in the East Bay.
Aurilia didn’t stay for dinner, but said that he chatted with Judge and wife, Samantha, for about 30 minutes. He also revealed that Logan Webb and Brandon Crawford attended the dinner, in addition to Gabe Kapler, Zaidi and Baer.
The Giants, according to Pavlovic’s report, never intended for the meeting to become public. Aurilia joked with Baer that Judge, the 6-foot-7 slugger, would be a tough guy to hide. And sure enough, right before the dinner, a video of Judge walking into the lobby of a San Francisco hotel leaked online.
Some have speculated that Judge and his agents were simply using the Giants as leverage to get a better offer from New York. The leaked hotel video and Judge’s comments in a TIME Magazine story that was released right before the winter meetings have convinced many fans that Judge was using the Giants for leverage.
But Zaidi has publicly disagreed with that sentiment, saying Judge was acting in good faith. Aurilia agrees.
“I kind of feel like I’m a decent judge of character,” Aurilia said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this was a genuine thing. He had interest. I don’t think it was a ploy to just build up a market or run a price up. I think he had serious interest in the San Francisco Giants as his next employer and his next team. To the extent of our conversation, he had even mentioned he’d been out in Scottsdale looking at some homes previously. So by no means do I think this was a ploy or there was anything that was not genuine out of Aaron Judge or his team to try to boost up the number. I felt like he was genuinely interested in the Giants as an organization.”
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