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Yankees avoid arbitration with Aaron Judge, 8 others

The New York Yankees avoided arbitration with nine of their players on Friday with one-year contracts, including star right fielder Aaron Judge.

The New York Yankees will not go into arbitration in 2020. The team agreed to terms on one-year contracts with all nine of their arbitration-eligible players, which includes superstar outfielder Aaron Judge.

The 27-year-old Judge was in his first year of arbitration. He will reportedly get a nice bump in salary all the way up to $8.5 million. That’s a whole lot more than the $684,300 salary he made in 2019.

The other players that got one-year deals include:

  • C Gary Sanchez
  • RP Chad Green
  • RP Luis Cessa
  • IF Gio Ursula
  • RP Tommy Kahnle
  • SP James Paxton
  • SP Jordan Montgomery
  • RP Jonathan Holder

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These players likely got a nice bump in salary. The Yankees got quite a bargain with Sanchez, who settled at $5 million for the 2019 season. The Yankees also settled with Urshela at just under $2.5 million for the 2019 campaign.

Another notable name that settled for the Yankees was Paxton, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent following the 2020 season. The Yankees and Paxton settled for $12.5 million for the 2020 season.

The Yankees haven’t been in arbitration with a player since the 2017 offseason. That was when they went to arbitration with relief pitcher Dellin Betances. While it was settled, there were plenty of fireworks from president Randy Levine following the arguments. It’s that type of publicity teams try to avoid when getting into arbitration. Because of the two sides butting heads, nothing good comes of it.

The figures aren’t available for all of the players yet. But the fact that the Yankees avoided arbitration is a good thing. The process of arbitration is good for neither side. It basically gets to the point where the player gives a figure in what they believe they deserve and the team brings about all of the negativity in their game as an argument why they shouldn’t get paid as much.

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