Meet Samantha Bracksieck, Aaron Judge’s wife: she and the New York Yankees star were high school sweethearts and share a love of sport – she also advised a fellow Wag about the NYC Marathon

Oct 29 , 2024

The private pair avoid social media and have mostly kept their relationship out of the limelight; they’re often spotted at sporting events though and Bracksieck has run the NYC Marathon at least twice

In October 2022, New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge set the baseball world alight when he hit his 62nd home run towards the end of that year’s season. His efforts broke the previous record of 61 homers set by Yankees slugger Roger Maris in 1961.

Just two months earlier, during the off-season, the Yankees announced that they had finalised a new contract with Judge. The third-largest deal in the history of baseball would see Judge take home US$360 million over nine years.

Aaron Judge prepares to take a swing during batting practice at Yankee Stadium this month. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

At the press conference announcing Judge’s new contract, the Yankees shared that he would also become team captain, a position that had been vacant since team veteran Derek Jeter left in 2014. Judge later revealed that the Yankees’ managing general partner, Hal Steinbrenner, had floated the idea of the captaincy during contract negotiations in November. Despite being courted by other teams, including the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres, Judge said he and his wife, Samantha Bracksieck, decided they needed to be in “New York or nowhere”.

Samantha Bracksieck and Aaron Judge at an event during the MLB All Star Game in Los Angeles in 2022. Photo: @thejudge44/Instagram

It was also Bracksieck who gave Judge the advice he needed to seal the deal on his new contract. While the pair were on their way to Hawaii to celebrate their anniversary, she suggested that Judge call the team and put his cards on the table by telling them he wanted to stay but needed a few more years on the contract. Steinbrenner quickly agreed – then added that he planned to make Judge Yankees captain.

So what do we know about Samantha Bracksieck, the woman who helped her husband land one of the most lucrative contracts in baseball history?

The couple grew up together

Aaron Judge and Samantha Bracksieck attend the New York Knicks’ season opener at Madison Square Garden in October 2023. Photo: @mlb.fits/Instagram

Bracksieck and Judge met at Linden High School in Linden, California, and were high school sweethearts. They later attended California’s Fresno State University together.

While Judge was busy hitting home runs for the Fresno State Bulldogs, Bracksieck studied kinesiology. Her focus was on sports injuries, with her master’s thesis focusing on elbow ligament injuries in Major League Baseball players.