The Aaron Judge contract story is like bubble gum in your sneaker grooves. It is not going away any time soon.

So here in this corner of 3Up, I figured I would give you a handy guide to refer to as the season transpires. These are the questions that will remain pertinent until Judge agrees to his next contract (regardless of with which team):

1. Is the baseball really dead? If so, advantage Judge. Through Wednesday, home runs were being hit at their lowest rate since 2014. In April, homers were hit once every 40.9 plate appearances. It has been once every 35.4 appearances in May. Maybe warmer weather or more familiarity with the ball or some other factor will lead to homers ticking upward all season.

But if homers generally are not going to be as prevalent as, say, in 2019-20, when the ball probably should have been tested for steroids, then players who still can hit homers in this forum will be even more valuable. The Yankees have at least two of them in Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. What is rare is valuable, and teams pay (lots) for valuable.