Aaron Judge wants one thing from Yankees at MLB trade deadline

MLB

By Greg Joyce

August 1, 2023 | 1:13pm

Aaron Judge arrived in the majors a few weeks after the 2016 trade deadline, so he has never experienced the Yankees being anything close to sellers.

But as the Yankees entered Tuesday’s deadline day stuck in last place of the AL East (55-51) and tied for sixth in the wild-card race – 3 ½ games out of the third and final wild-card spot – the possibility existed that the team could at least partially sell on its pending free agents.

“I want to win,” Judge said Monday night when asked if he would be disappointed if the front office sold. “Whatever gets us closer to being a better team and winning, that’s why I’m here. That’s why everybody in this room is here, we want to win. I don’t know what’s going to happen; it’s out of our control. The bottom line is I came here to win, just like a lot of other guys and that’s what we gotta focus on.”

The Post’s Joel Sherman reported on Monday that the Yankees told interested teams they would be open to talking about their rentals like Harrison Bader, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Wandy Peralta and Luis Severino.

It remains to be seen whether any of those deals come to fruition by the 6 p.m. deadline, but the stumbling Yankees have not exactly shown their front office that they are a team worthy of adding big pieces.

“It’s tough to say,” Judge said. “That’s out of my hands. We got a ballgame to worry about. They got their job on the front office side of things, we gotta go out there and play the game. So I got nothing on that.”

While the Yankees had yet to pull off any trades as of Tuesday morning, teams around them in the playoff race were more active. 

The Rays, in town for a three-game series in The Bronx, added right-hander Aaron Civale from the Guardians on Monday. The Blue Jays have traded for top reliever Jordan Hicks. The Astros acquired reliever Kendall Graveman and continued to be linked to Justin Verlander.

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And the Angels, who moved a half-game ahead of the Yankees in the wild-card standings Monday night, have been aggressive in adding right-hander Lucas Giolito, reliever Reynaldo Lopez, outfielder Randal Grichuk and first baseman C.J. Cron.

“You see the moves, especially the Rays getting someone like Aaron – he’s a great pitcher, he’s had a good year so far – but it comes back to what I said: we got a job to do on the field,” Judge said. “We can’t focus on who’s going where, what moves are being made, what moves are not being made. This game is hard enough. If we’re focused on other things besides winning a baseball game here in The Bronx, then we’re going to be in a bad spot.”