KANSAS CITY — The on-field portion of Aaron Judge’s first season as captain of the Yankees ends on Sunday. Judge didn’t play in Game 162, a 5-2 loss to the Royals and a quiet conclusion to a disastrous year that fell miles short of expectations.
The first year of Judge’s captaincy is far from over, though. In fact, Judge is well aware that he has more important work to be done, crucial conversations that need to be had long before calendars flip to 2024.
Judge has plans to meet with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman shortly after the conclusion of the regular season. He said he’s already been chatting with Steinbrenner and Cashman throughout this summer, but he’s “looking forward” to more productive dialogue beginning this week in Tampa.
“I think there’s some things that happened this year that opened people’s eyes,” Judge said on Sunday morning at Kauffman Stadium. “Hopefully the right people saw it and we’ll get the right people in the room to discuss those things and figure it out. I’m excited, hopefully there’s some better things to come.”
Judge has been beating that drum over these last few weeks, never shying away from an opportunity to reiterate the fact that this organization needs to make changes, fixing a product that failed to make the playoffs in 2023 and hasn’t been back to the World Series since 2009.
While the Yankees have extra time this winter to make adjustments in personnel and philosophy, taking a long look in the mirror while other clubs compete for a championship, Judge wants the Yankees to have urgency.
“We got an extra four weeks to brainstorm, kick ideas, talk back and forth,” he said. “Why not get that started earlier? There’s no sense in waiting. Let’s get it done and get it moving to kind of put ourselves in the best position going into next season.”
Asked if the Yankees need to make sweeping changes or just a few minor tweaks, the captain sided with the latter….
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