Three years ago, during an offseason in which Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner made it clear he intended to spend in free agency, the winter meetings were at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego.

The Yankees came away from those meetings with a nine-year, $324 million contract for Gerrit Cole, the top pitcher on the market.

This week, with the winter meetings right back at the same hotel, Steinbrenner had a similar — and even more clear — focus on Aaron Judge.

And it ended in the same fashion, with Steinbrenner bumping an existing offer up by a year at the same annual salary, to keep Judge with the Yankees.