Of all the superstar free agents out there this winter, Aaron Judge wanted the New York Yankees to sign Adam Ottavino the most.
Out of Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Dallas Keuchel, Craig Kimbrel, and the many other free agents on the market, Aaron Judge wanted the New York Yankees to sign one player in particular the most: Adam Ottavino.
Judge spoke with Coley Harvey of ESPN. He expressed just how much he wanted the Bronx Bombers to sign one of the games best relievers.
Aaron Judge sounded giddy about the Yankees' 2019 bullpen earlier: pic.twitter.com/gApc9MjLGl
— Coley Harvey (@ColeyHarvey) February 19, 2019
Judge mentioned how impressed he was when he watched Ottavino pitch during the offseason.
“Adam Ottavino, that’s the one guy I watched all offseason and kept praying,” Judge said. “I was like ‘Come on, man.'”
Talk about some high praise from the face of the Yankees for their newly-acquired reliever..
The compliments from Judge are well deserving considering Ottavino throws one of the game’s nastiest sliders and two-seam fastballs. Now with him moving to outside of Colorado, Ottavino feels like those two pitches can only get better.
Ottavino and the rest of the Yankees bullpen look to put up some historic numbers considering the manpower that manager Aaron Boone has to choose from. If there is a stretch of six consecutive right-handers coming to the plate, Boone can go to Ottavino. Against right-handed hitters is when most of Ottavino’s damage is done. Should he need a big strikeout in the sixth, Boone can go to one of Chad Green, Ottavino, Jonathan Holder, Dellin Betances and Zack Britton.
Oh, and speaking of Britton, he was another player Judge really wanted to see come back to the Bronx. Britton had a short stint with the Yankees in 2018.
One thing is for sure, while Aaron Judge is capable of destroying baseballs, he knows just how important having a great bullpen is to winning a championship.
