San Diego Padres were hard after the Yankees Aaron Judge and offered him $400 million dollars to head out West to Petco Park

Padres reportedly pulled out all the stops to try to lure Aaron Judge to San Diego
from Victor Barbosa, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com

Aaron Judge rejected an offer of over $400 million from the San Diego Padres this offseason to stay with the New York Yankees, according to a report from Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

How eager were the Padres to sign Aaron Judge?

Sources tell @ken_rosenthal the offer was:

??$415M range
??At least 12 years
??Guarantee nearly $100M higher than Yankees' offer at the time

Then, Hal Steinbrenner sent Judge a text.

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) March 9, 2023

Judge eventually signed a nine-year, $360 million deal to remain in the Bronx, possibly for the rest of his career.

Soon after it was reported that Judge and the Yankees agreed to the new contract, news came out that the 2022 AL MVP met “last minute” with the Padres, before Hal Steinbrenner convinced the superstar outfielder to stay with the only MLB club he’s known. At Judge’s official reintroduction press conference in mid-December, after the contract was signed, New York’s owner revealed that he told No. 99, “As far as I’m concerned, you are not a free agent… you are a Yankee.”

The 30-year-old four-time All-Star was also named the 16th captain in franchise history at the December presser.

Per the report from Lin and Rosenthal, the Friars “paid for a private jet to fly Judge’s agents, family and dog from Tampa Bay to San Diego.” Judge reportedly met at Petco Park for “three hours with a group that included owner Peter Seidler, general manager A.J. Preller, assistant GM Josh Stein and manager Bob Melvin.”

Still, Yankees brass was able to convince the team’s 2013 first-round draft pick to return.

When the Padres missed out on Judge, it came shortly after San Diego was unable to land dynamic star shortstop Trea Turner. The team ultimately “settled” on bringing fellow standout shortstop Xander Bogaerts and also recently re-signed 2022 NL MVP runner-up Manny Machado and five-time All-Star starting pitcher Yu Darvish.

With the likes of Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr. and a recovering Joe Musgrove on top of that, the Padres still have one of the loaded rosters in MLB, even without Judge and Turner.