Report expands on AL East rival's free-agency pursuit of Yankees' Aaron Judge

Kristie Ackert of the Tampa Bay Times revealed on Wednesday that the Tampa Bay Rays "are believed to have been willing to talk about a contract of about 10 years and $300M" with current New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge following Judge's historic 2022 season.

"The Rays, that surprised me," Judge admitted about hearing from Tampa Bay after he reached free agency. "And just because it was a divisional rival, and I’ve spent my whole career trying to game-plan against them."

A native of Linden, California, who grew up going to San Francisco Giants games, Judge reportedly considered signing with the Giants and San Diego Padres shortly after he earned American League Most Valuable Player Award honors for the 2022 campaign. 

However, he ultimately put pen to paper on a nine-year, $360M deal to stay with the Yankees and become the 16th captain in the history of the storied franchise.

"It was a very respectful (offer), and I appreciated that they reached out and that they thought enough of me to do that," Judge said about the Rays' interest. "And I respect their team. I respect what they have built here. They have a good club, and their team is tough. But it was so hard to think about (playing for them) because I’ve spent my whole career game-planning against them and trying to beat them."

While it's known that New York Mets owner Steve Cohen may or may not have had some type of handshake agreement with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner about not trying to sign Judge after the towering slugger set an AL single-season record of 62 home runs, Tampa Bay making a call to Paul Odle, Judge's agent, seemingly flew under the radar until Bryan Hoch of MLB's website mentioned the matter in his book that was published in 2023. 

"The Giants and the Padres, I kind of expected that," Judge explained about his free-agency options, "and it was different because they weren’t teams we see all the time (playing in the AL)."

The Yankees are in the middle of what could soon become a concerning summer swoon, but there's no indication that Judge has any regrets about committing his long-term future to the club ahead of Christmas 2022. Logic suggests the Rays never would've matched the offers Judge received from the Padres, Giants and Yankees two offseasons ago.