Once the American League single season home run leader Aaron Judge decides to sign with a Major League Baseball team for the next several years all of the false reporting, disinformation, and gobbledygook will be forgotten.  Regardless, the legacy media will still spin inaccurate narratives because the public will continue to believe the propaganda talking points placed strategically for consumption. 

   On Wednesday December 6, 2022, in an article entitled, “Time 2022 Athlete of the Year Aaron Judge,” Time magazine quoted Judge remarking on early contract negotiations between himself and the New York Yankees. Mr. Judge stated:

“I was a little upset that the numbers came out. I understand it’s a negotiation tactic. Put pressure on me. Turn the fans against me, turn the media on me. That part of it I didn’t like.” (Gregory and Schoeller)

Interestingly enough, there is a line in the article immediately after the Aaron Judge quote which states, “A Yankees spokesperson declined to make Cashman available for comment” (Gregory and Schoeller).  A strong argument can be made here that the Aaron Judge quote is misinformation due to the timing of the article being published, the lack of a react quote from the New York Yankees, and the so-called “MLB Insiders” making information up out of thin air. 

     To start, let’s examine the timing of the article being published.  Since this article was posted to the Time website with the date of December 06, 2022, it holds weight that the Judge quote in question may have been strategically published knowing that Mr. Cashman would be unavailable due his presence at the MLB Winter Meetings in San Diego, California.  It should be noted that, Brian Cashman did make media time with the YES Network on December 05, 2022 to discuss various off-season business.

     Without delay, let’s put the analysis binoculars on to study the issue of the lack of a react quote from Brian Cashman in the Time article.  A react quote generally is used to strengthen a story, and in particular they are very important to provide further credibility to previous quotations/remarks. It has already been established that, Mr. Cashman was unavailable for comment, but the lack of research by the Time magazine staff is undeniable here.  A quick internet search for “Brian Cashman speaking on Aaron Judge’s contract” reveals a page entitled, “Cashman Answers Questions on Aaron Judges Contract Being Leaked Out” with links to the Tiki & Tierny Podcast for November 4, 2022.  At the 6 minute and 7 second mark of the podcast an exchange between Sweeny Murti and Brian Cashman is played. 

Sweeny Murti asks:

“Brian, when you talked to us on opening day and you told us that the offer you made to Judge that he declined um there’s a perception that, that caused unnecessary friction with your star player and the organization. Did you get any sense of that from him or his agent along the way?” (Murti)

To which Brian Cashman responds:

“No, this was asked you know, early on several times over, and answered several times over. Now, you know, as I said then and I’ll say now um, during our conversations this spring you know I talked to Page Odle and let him know that we would make public our offer just because it was going to go public. As an off the record, not a necessary thing. I wouldn’t have done it. But, I just know there’s no secrets. Too many people are involved. Major League Baseball, you know when you try to pull everybody in you’re dealing with the arbitration setting, and then you’re trying to get some guidance about as you always do about what things look like, and you try to sign guys to extension, you know out of bounds or falling short or whatever and you try to get as many important valued opinions involved and so once we place that offer which was, we had several offers along the way until the very end. And so, I was very transparent to Page Odle about ,I wanna say whether it was 4 or 5 days to a week in advance of saying it, that this is what going to happen so they weren’t caught off guard. And then, I acknowledged to you who speak to our fans, why. Which is and you’ve been here Sweeny for a long time. You know. I guess I ask you, Do you think that offer that we made if we kept it private wasn’t going to be in the paper the next day what it was?” (Cashman)

Sweeny answers: 

“No, but it is not usually your style to do it.” (Murti)

Cashman responds:                                                   

  “That’s why I explained it. Yeah.” (Cashman)

Sweeny responds:

“The perception is that the player would be angry at the organization for doing it.” (Murti)

Cashman responds:                                                                                                                                                                            

“Yeah, and you would have to ask Aaron Judge that as I probably said earlier in the year too as well.” (Cashman)

Sweeny asks:                                                                                                                                                                                        

 “He didn’t express that to you?” (Murti)

Cashman responds:

 “No. No. In my interactions with him right out of the gate there after was no different than it was before, and I didn’t get any call from Page Odle you know, asking me why we did that? Because Page knew we were doing that. So again it sounds like there’s some sort of underground current that I’m unaware of because it keeps coming up. But I can only answer like I did then honestly, and I give you the same answer I’m giving you know honestly.” (Cashman)

Sweeny asks:                                                                                                                                                                        

   “You wanna call me later, and tell me what the next offer’s gonna be ?” (Murti)

Cashman:                                                                                                                                                                                                         “When it’s over I guess.  It’ll be no secret when it’s all said and done. You’ll see what he signs for. Hopefully it is here at the end of the day.”  (Cashman)

As can be seen in the dialogue, there are a plethora of quotes here which the Time magazine authors could have used in the article, but were omitted.  This begs the question, since this narrative regarding Brian Cashman leaking information had been swirling all season, why did the authors insert only one perspective? 

Ultimately, the final element which must be studied closely here are the so-called “journalists” acting as “MLB Insiders” by making information up time and time again.  One example from today was posted at 1:54 PM on December 6, 2022, by John Heyman.

He stated:

“Giants are in with a big offer to Judge-believed to be $360M neighborhood – but the assumption/belief among rivals is that the Yankees remain favorites. Yankees are hopeful but say they still don’t know.”  (Heyman)

Later in the evening at 5:27 PM on December 6, 2022, John Heyman stated:                                                         

“Giants say they have not heard on Aaron Judge. My apologies for jumping the gun.” (Heyman, Twitter)

As shown above, John Heyman did apologize, and that is commendable.  The bigger issue here still remains.  Early on December 06, 2022, Time magazine published an article without properly following all avenues of research to provide a react quote to Aaron Judge’s comment regarding leaked contract negotiations.  This error resulted in legacy media outlets promoting a story about the Yankee front office leaking information without substantial evidence, or another quoted source form the Yankees themselves.  Furthermore, “MlB Insiders” then leaked contract negotiation details between Judge and other teams. This resulted in many people believing information that was simply untrue.  Afterall, why would Aaron Judge be frustrated with the Yankees front office for supposedly leaking contract negotiation information, and not upset with the San Francisco Giants front office for doing the same thing as well? Again, as it turns out, the San Francisco Giants did not leak information, but the narrative grew legs and, grew until Jon Heyman corrected his error.  It is this writer’s wish that we carefully research everything and publish truthful and informative pieces. Be well. 

Works Cited

Cashman, Brian. Cashman Answers Questions on Aaron Judges Contract Being Leaked Out Sweeny Murti. 04 November 2022. Podcast Press Confernce Clip. 06 December 2022. <https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/tiki-and-tierney-184/cashman-answers-questions-on-aaron-judges-contract-being-leaked-out-1535335036>.

Gregory, Sean and Martin Schoeller. Time 2022 Athlete of the Year Aaron Judge. 06 December 2022. Article . 06 December 2022. <https://time.com/athlete-of-the-year-2022-aaron-judge/>.

Heyman, Jon. Twitter. 06 December 2022. Social Media Tweet. 06 December 2022. <https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1600201968273985536?s=20&t=prBIeZEr4rpibwP053Jjcw>.

—. Twitter. 06 Decmeber 2022. Social Media Tweet . 06 December 2022. <https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1600255515916832768?s=20&t=prBIeZEr4rpibwP053Jjcw>.

Murti, Sweeny. Cashman Answers Questions on Aaron Judges Contract Being Leaked Out Brian Cashman. 04 Novermber 2022. Podcast Press Conference Sound Clip . <https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/tiki-and-tierney-184/cashman-answers-questions-on-aaron-judges-contract-being-leaked-out-1535335036>.