INTERESTING DETAILS SURROUNDING JUDGE'S RETURN EMERGE

Start spreading the news.... Aaron Judge ISN'T leaving. He's here to stay and some of the details leading up to return to the Yankees ae intriguing. In fact, it might give you a new appreciation for Yankee brass.

Look, this is the story of the Winter Meetings. Judge coming back is HUGE and if this story HERE is true, it's not all thanks to Brian Cashman, he had extra support from Aaron Boone and Hal Steinbrenner. We always knew the Giants were in the mix for Judge, we knew they wanted him badly. Leading up to the Winter Meetings I kept watching MLB coverage about Judge and MLB analysts kept saying they believed the Judge sweepstakes was only down to two teams.... there would be no mystery team. I didn't believe that for a minute.

Judge just had a monster season, so why should it only be down to two teams? I'm honestly not surprised to hear that The Padres jumped in rather late with a 10 year $400 million offer that wasn't put in writing at the time. If that was the offer, that's huge. But what's also huge is that Judge left another year and $40 million on the table to come back to us.

Boone's phone call to Judge doesn't surprise me in fact I expect that considering how he is such a player's manager. I do know several Yankee fans though that were pleasantly surprised to hear that Hal himself reached out to Judge and asked if he wanted to be a Yankee and what it would take to get him back. Hal takes a lot of heat for not being like his dad and not having that same passion to want to win.... he just showed us that he does. Over the years I have given Hal a lot of crap, especially recently so it is nice to see him step up when it matters most.

If the Padres offer above was legitimate, I have a new respect for Judge. He left another year and a large sum of money on the table to stay in pinstripes and that is respect. That is a man with integrity and passion. Now....give that man the captain title!

Judge is a Yankee. He belongs in the Bronx, not back in his old stomping grounds. He's right where he belongs. Santa came early this year, and it feels good.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj