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

On October 31, 2024By Littum

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

Just two months earlier, during the offseason, the Yankees announced that they had finalized a new contract with Judge. The third-largest deal in baseball history would see Judge take home $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 the team veteran Derek Jeter left in 2014. Judge later revealed that Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner had floated the captain idea during contract negotiations in November. Despite being courted by other teams, including the San Francisco Giants and 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 2022 MLB All Star Game in Los Angeles. Photo: @thejudge44/Instagram

It was also Bracksieck who gave Judge the advice he needed to seal the deal on his new contract. While the couple were on their way to Hawaii to celebrate their anniversary, she suggested that the referee 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 the 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 — 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, where her master’s thesis focused on injuries in elbow ligaments in Major League Baseball players.