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Arbitrator can not use Aaron Judge’s 2022 numbers in the decision making process.

Yankees would be smart to reach a settlement before the arbitration hearing.

His arbitration is scheduled to begin at noon on Friday. Once again the Yankees are likely to make a MVP-less case, this time before three arbitrators on a teleconference call. Though I strongly sense this is a case they hope never to make.

Aaron Judge joined Babe Ruth as the only Yankees to have six multi-homer games in the first 70 games of a season.

Aaron Judge belts two long homers and joins Babe Ruth in Yankees’ history books.

The Yankees almost certainly want to settle before their side sits down at MLB’s offices and Judge and his reps do so at the Players Association offices. Judge has asked for $21 million, the Yankees have countered at $17 million in the last case on the dockets this year — normally cases are heard in February, but there was a lockout in place then and, thus, arbitrations had to be held uncomfortably during the season.

The midpoint is $19 million. I have spoken to multiple folks who have done cases on both sides who think that before a hearing the Yanks will take a last best shot to settle; perhaps offering $19 million-ish with an All-Star bonus (he is definitely making the AL team) and/or an MVP bonus (he is the front-runner right now) that could get him toward $20 million.

And the last thing the Yankees want is to have negativity invade what is, to date, feeling like a magical season with Judge as the lead magician. Plus, they ultimately want to reignite long-term talks, which led Gerrit Cole to wonder, “How scorched earth do they go for a guy they want to keep long term?”

Still, it takes two to deal. Judge has clearly yet to be moved off of his top-of-the-market views. The Yankees offered what even many veteran agents felt was a fair seven-year, $213.5 million extension that Judge rejected before the season. The Yankees probably would have gone a bit higher. But Judge saw himself as far more valuable on and off the field.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/23/yankees-would-be-wise-not-to-upset-aaron-judge-during-arbitration/