There has been plenty of discourse this off-season about whether impending free agent Manny Machado would end up with the New York Yankees next winter.
Apparently the subject has been on the mind of Yankees star Aaron Judge, too.
“Adding him to our lineup that we’ve already got would be something special,” Judge told media on Wednesday, after speaking with Machado prior to a spring training contest against the Baltimore Orioles.
“I told him he’d look good in pinstripes.”
MLB does not take kindly to such comments, which can be perceived as tampering. However, the league did not fine Judge.
“We have been in contact with the Yankees,” MLB said in a statement issued to the New York Daily News. “They communicated to us that Mr. Judge’s off-the-cuff comments were not appropriate and not authorized by the club. They will speak to him to make sure this does not happen again.”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told the Daily News that he has since spoken to Judge and let him know such comments are not welcome, because MLB is “sensitive to that kind of stuff.”
Judge was receptive to the instruction.
“Now I know,” Judge said. “It was all new to me, you learn something new every day.”
In 2016, a similar situation occurred when David Ortiz made public comments about Edwin Encarnacion joining the Boston Red Sox as a free agent. Encarnacion was playing with the Toronto Blue Jays at the time.
Ortiz, who was in the final season of his playing career, was not fined, but did receive a letter from the league reminding him to avoid tampering.
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