Eight months ago, Aaron Judge turned down a seven-year contract extension worth more than $200 million. Judge’s dice roll has officially paid off for him as, after a brief flirtation with the NL West, he remains with the Yankees on a nine-year, $360 million deal that ensures that he’ll spend most, if not all, of his career in pinstripes.

$213 million wasn’t an unreasonable offer given the facts on the ground in April. While Judge had a rookie season of mega-ultra-super-duper-star quality in 2017, he had failed to come close to that level in recent years. It would be an enormous stretch to say he struggled or was disappointing, but Judge entered 2022 with only one full, healthy season in the last four campaigns. To land a huge upgrade on that pre-season contract offer as a free agent entering his age-31 season, Judge would basically need to match his .284/.422/.627, 8.7 WAR rookie year.

He did more than that.

The Yankee slugger wasn’t just able to return to the best version of himself, but for at least one magical season, he managed to improve on it. We don’t need to go too long here since I doubt anyone’s unaware of his accomplishments, but Judge had an offensive season of an historic nature, hitting .311/.425/.686 for 11.4 WAR, and surpassing Roger Maris to set a new all-time American League home run record with 62 round-trippers.

There are more factors that worked in Judge’s favor than just his abundance of awesomeness. For one, teams appear to have adopted a mindset that is far more amenable to big spending than the one they had earlier this year during the rump offseason following the long lockout. Every team getting another $30 million as part of MLB’s sale the remainder of BAMTech to Disney possibly helped as well; $30 million in my Christmas stocking would definitely put me in the mood to be nice about every club in baseball, even the Rockies and Marlins! Nor were the Yankees bidding just against themselves; Judge was rumored to be very near a deal with the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night and at least one team, whether the Giants or someone else, bested New York’s final dollar amount. Even the San Diego Padres, who seem to be in a spending mood and were just defeated in bidding for Trea Turner’s services, appear to have been a late entrant in the Judge negotiations.

So what do the Yankees get for their money? Here are the official ZiPS projections for Judge over the next nine years.

ZiPS projects $311 million for Judge, but based on the offseason so far, the system appears to have some negative bias on contract dollars this free agency go-around. But even if it doesn’t, spending $360 million instead of $311 million to retain your franchise player is hardly a discrepancy to complain about, especially with the market rapidly running out of good ways to spend $311 million. Sure, Carlos Correa is still out there, but given the personnel the Yankees have available, a corner outfielder is a better fit for the team than a shortstop. Simply put, New York has Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza, two elite shortstop prospects, just about ready for the majors, but their outfield equivalent, most likely Jasson Domínguez, is unlikely to be ready to immediately step into Judge’s shoes. In any case, with Aaron Hicks the likely left fielder as of now and Harrison Bader only signed for the short-term, they probably needed more than one outfielder in any case.

I tend to think optics are overrated, but for the most famous team in baseball history, in the game’s largest market, to walk away from its best player after one of the best seasons in team history, one that cements him as a franchise legend, would be a horrible thing to try to sell to fans.

Aaron Judge returning to the Yankees feels like everything is as it should be, and that’s coming from a Baltimore-born Orioles fan who grew up booing the Yankees at every opportunity.

We’ll have more on the deal soon.