Yankees star Aaron Judge drops huge bombshell on his plan to retire from baseball
The New York Yankees captain only turned 33 in April but looks as good as ever and has put himself into contention for this year's Triple Crown.
Now Judge has told The New York Times that he's got no intention of walking away soon, giving the Yankees a huge boost as the second half of the season gets underway on Friday night.
'That's the plan,' he said, referring to his expectation that he'll sign another contract after his nine-year deal expires in 2031, when he'll be 39.
'When I signed this deal one of the things I promised was that I wanted to come in and be a contributor all the way to the end of that contract. So hopefully we'll continue that.'
Judge debuted with the Yankees at age 24 in 2016. He has 350 homers in his career and has his eyes set on Babe Ruth's franchise record of 659.
He added: 'We can dream. We can hope. It's tough, though. I've got to be hitting 50 homers all the way into my early 40s.
'I don't know. It would be something good to strive for. I never really thought about it, to be honest. I just try to go out there to do my job.'
The two-time AL MVP became the fastest player in MLB history to reach 350 career homers last week and it feels inevitable that the Bronx slugger will join the hallowed 500-homer club sometime in the next several years.
Following his latest All-Star appearance, Judge returns to action for the Yankees on Friday night when they play the Atlanta Braves.
The Yankees entered the All-Star break at 53-43, good for second place in the AL East, two games behind Toronto. New York won five of its final seven games before the break.
'There's a long way to go still,' New York manager Aaron Boone said. 'We've got to keep getting better, but we're in a position to do what we need to do.'
The Yankees have scored 501 runs and have a plus-111 run differential, both No. 1 in the American League.
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