Aaron Judge isn't the only star to mash in his contract year

As far as contract years go, you could do worse than the one Aaron Judge is having. He was a Triple Crown contender, put up more than double the wins above replacement of the next-best player on his team, and just happened to break Roger Maris' American League home run record while he was at it. Wherever Judge plays next year, he's going to get paid.

Not all players are as lucky — or as good — as Judge. Injuries or nerves or just the vagaries of season-to-season adjustments can result in a poor performance during a contract year. Judge's type of performance is rare — but not completely unprecedented. Sometimes the stars align and a player puts together the kind of season that goes into the record books and secures them a hefty contract. Here's a short list of other sports greats who got it done when the financial stakes were at their highest.

Barry Bonds, 1992

Bonds had an incredible end to his Pittsburgh Pirates career. He won MVP honors in 1990 and 1992 and was runner-up in 1991. That '92 season was just a preview of what he would accomplish later, but what a preview: 34 home runs, 109 runs, an OPS of 1.080 and 9.0 B-Ref WAR. He signed a then-record six-year, $43.75 million contract with the San Francisco Giants, and posted an OPS of 1.000 or more in all but one of his 15 seasons with the team. To be fair, that one season was when he was 41 — and his OPS was .999 in it.

Alex Rodriguez, 2000 and 2007

A-Rod had extremely good fortune when it came to his contract years. His 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers raised a number of eyebrows when he first signed it, but in his age-24 season in 2000 with the Seattle Mariners, Rodriguez absolutely destroyed the league. He hit 41 home runs, knocked in 132 runs,