Jeter...

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but as we've seen in the Hampton & Chan Ho Park contracts

Threebagger, I am not sure about Park's situation, but I am confident the Hampton contract was based on the solid school districts and education in the Denver area.
It really wasn't about the money.
Does the name Kevin Brown seem familiar?
Now it sounds like the White Sox paid Jason Dunn $16,000,000 per year for 4 years.
Does that rule out defense as a factor in the Jeter negotiations?

Yeah, its never about the money! I almost used Kevin Brown as one of my examples. You mean that big ol cornfed as we say, Texas boy Adam Dunn, don't you? Oh, and Adam handles everything he can get to: he just can't get to anything!

Yup, that's the right Dunn...could have used him at QB this year, huh?
If Cam is still eligible...never mind.

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A NY sports radio host said a couple of years ago that the Yankees could add another $100 mil to their payroll and still be comfortable. Two years ago they add Sabbathia, Texeria, Burnett and Swisher in one off season. That was after giving ARod his $200 mil deal. Do you really think that money matters to them or that they have a budget?

Big difference was that Sabathia was a 28 yr old pitcher and Arod was 33 at free agant time. Nobody wants to put out insane loot for old men playing a young man's game unless they really have to. Jeter will be 37 looking for a 27 yr old's contract. Relatively speaking, even the Yankees will look for a "bargain" if they can get it.

As for the Arod fiasco, Yanks outbid themselves. They could've signed him for much less when he tried to blame the PR mess on Boras. Arod practically begged on his knees when he saw nobody was in a bidding war for his services except for the Yankees themselves. The Steinbrenner kids blinked.

JH,

Not sure why Jeter wasn't listed in Patrick Eberts article.

Jeter currently has 2,926 career hits.

No way do the Yankees let him get his 3,000th wearing another uniform.

There are no other big milestones out there that are really within reach. Neither Cobb's AL mark nor Rose's MLB mark seem attainable. He'd have to put up 200+ for 6 years to get to that level. So after 2011, there's an awful lot of risk to the Yankees that he refuses to go when it's time and they have a PR nightmare on their hands.

Maybe this ends up with them compromising on the higher salary Jeter wants, but with the shorter term the Yankees want.

BTW, I thought the note comparing this to the Paul Molitor situation was interesting, but I'd still say it's too important to Jeter that he stay a Yankee for him to seriously think about following the Molitor path. First, no one else will pay him more than the Yankees anyway, whereas Molitor left the Brewers and then the Jays to find greener pastures. Second, Molitor didn't leave a mega market like NYC, where the opportunities for lifetime icon status are always present, and moreover, in his last move Molitor essentially went back to his home state to close out his career.

Jeter is viewed in the same mode as Dimaggio, Rizzuto, Berra, and Mantle. Yankees for life. Icons. And in today's world, destined to cash in via endorsements for decades after his playing days end. If I were his agent, sure I might run a bluff in a negotiation, but it would just be a bluff. No way I'd advise him to actually sign with anyone but the Yankees. I'm sure the Yankees know that and that's why they're sticking to their guns. They know he has to eventually move to their position because he has to stay with them in the end.

I'm guessing Patrick Ebert omitted Jeter from his article for the simple reason, everyone knows that this ends with Jeter re-signing with the Yankees. He may be a free agent under the rules, but he isn't really a free agent, because he isn't going anywhere.

My view is that this whole Jeter free agent publicity is desired and welcomed by both sides of the table. The Yankees get press that they are "financially" conservative and Jeter gets to preserve his dignity during this time. Like many have said, there is only one final outcome.

Keeping it in the press for a month or so when everyone knows that outcome is good for debating and discussing the Yankees, and they need that in NY and around the country. MLB benefits also as each night it has me tuning into Hot Stove just to hear if it is the big news of the day. The announcers love talking about it.

What else is winter for?

Someone earlier posted that Jeter should get a 3 yr deal with option for 4th year - they were right.

FROM AP:

"Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees reached a preliminary agreement Saturday on a $51 million, three-year contract with an $8 million player option for 2014, a source said.

The guaranteed portion of the contract includes a $3 million buyout if the option is declined. If it is exercised, Jeter would earn $56 million over four seasons.

The player option can escalate to $17 million. The amount depends on a points system. He earns points based on whether he finishes anywhere among the top six in AL MVP voting and if he wins World Series MVP, league championship series MVP, Gold Glove or Silver Slugger Awards. If he earns the maximum, he would get $65 million over the four years.

There is deferred money included, which for the purposes of baseball's collective bargaining agreement and the luxury tax brings its average annual value to about $16 million annually."

That's a fairly reasonable contract for the Yankees and Jeter gets the extra year at acheaper cost to the club. The escalation clauses are a boon to Jeter if he has an oustanding year or two left in him. It ended with Jeter rightfully a Yankee probably to the end.

Jeter's situation was resolved exactly how I'd figure it would be. He wasn't getting 6 yrs and a raise from his last contract nor was he gonna get lowballed because of potentially being on the decline and as I said in an earlier post, once Jeter takes a step back and looks at the big picture, he and the Yankees would kiss and make up.

In a previous post I guessed three years at fifty mil. Missed it by one. Sox fans are looking forward to Jeter playing short for three more years. The Yankees didn't have a choice but to sign him. Hopefully if he loses it he'll retire sfter his 3,000 hit. I hate to see legends struggle.

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Originally posted by RJM:
In a previous post I guessed three years at fifty mil. Missed it by one.

Good call. The only shot I figured Jeter would get a higher yearly salary was to go 1-2 yrs.

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Originally posted by RJM:
In a previous post I guessed three years at fifty mil. Missed it by one. Sox fans are looking forward to Jeter playing short for three more years. The Yankees didn't have a choice but to sign him. Hopefully if he loses it he'll retire sfter his 3,000 hit. I hate to see legends struggle.

Why? Do they enjoy watching him on TV in October that much?

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Originally posted by ken:

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Originally posted by RJM:
In a previous post I guessed three years at fifty mil. Missed it by one. Sox fans are looking forward to Jeter playing short for three more years. The Yankees didn't have a choice but to sign him. Hopefully if he loses it he'll retire sfter his 3,000 hit. I hate to see legends struggle.

Why? Do they enjoy watching him on TV in October that much?

First I'll say I have the greatest respect for Jeter's career. But if Jeter is in the World Series the next three years it most likely won't be because of him. How many shortstops in decline in their late 30's become better players heading into their 40's? His range is already questionable. I'll bet the Yankees are scared to death he's at the end of the line.

Ugly time will be the day Jeter is called into a meeting to tell him he's not getting it done at short anymore. The problem is ther's no place to move him. He's not better than the guys on either side of him. He not a DH type. There's a very good chance the left side of the Yankees infield could become a huge defensive liability the next few years.

Here are some huge warning signs given Jeter's age:

batting average - worst of career, off 44 points from career average
on base percentage - worst of career, off 45 points from career average
slugging percentage - worst of career, off 82 points from career average
OPS - worst of career, off 127 points from career average

And yet still, it seems like he's always playing in October while whoever is stuck manning the middle up at Fenway is busy shooting rounds of golf...I'll bet the Yankees are more than satisfied to have one of the most prominent, legendary, surefire Hall of Fame shortstops to ever play the game continue to wear pinstripes.

This isn't intended to be an unobjective Sox v. Yankees pee'ing match. Jeter hasn't "always" been in his late 30's. He hasn't "always" had a significant drop in his numbers. I'm was attempting to have an objective conversation on Jeter's career in decline. His numbers along with his age are a warning sign. The reality is shortstops don't get better in their late 30's. They fade away. The only exceptions I can think of defensively are Vizquel and Smith. Offensively, anyone who doesn't see Jeter's 2010 numbers versus is career as a warning sign is wearing blinders.

This contract negotiation was one of a player who doesn't want to play for anyone but the Yankees and get his 3,000 hit in a Yankee uniform. It's about the Yankees wanting it for Jeter. It's the way it should be. They just needed to find comfortable ground for a contract. The reality is, if Jeter was Joe Schmo, 36yo shortstop coming off a .270 season with declining range at short, the Yankees would have looked for a replacement rather than a three year contract and Joe Schmo would have signed somewhere else for about 5M.

I just hope if Jeter continues to decline after his 3,000 hit he takes it season by season and retires if he can't be a star. He's had too great of a career to fade away in decline with stories of how he should have retired after 2011.

As a Red Sox fan I don't have an issue with the Yankees running out an old shortstop in decline for the next three years. As a baseball fan I don't want to see it happen to Jeter. And I would hate to see him end his career on the bench hitting .220 to .250.

Even the great Ozzie Smith's range factor and assists declined by the time he was in his mid to late thirties. And unfortunately it didn't improve as he got older.

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As a Red Sox fan I don't have an issue with the Yankees running out an old shortstop in decline for the next three years. As a baseball fan I don't want to see it happen to Jeter. And I would hate to see him end his career on the bench hitting .220 to .250.

Amen brother. Everybody is good. Yankees had the opportunity to overpay (again) and they seized the moment. Everybody saved face until Cashman's press conference statement when he "welcomed Jeter back". That was a very, very odd thing to say.

ESPN and others are reporting the Yankees are offering Cliff Lee 7 years and over $20,000,000 per year.
That will make Cliff 40 years old when the contact ends.
For those who extolled the "virtues" of Yankee management in holding "firm" and drawing a "line in the sand" with Jeter because of his age, and despite his past performance and contributions as a player and teammate, how do the Lee negotiations fit?
Funny how in MLB the guy you don't have always seems so much more attractive than the one you do have, even when he is Jeter and even when he is/was associated with World Champions(multiple).

To win some World Series over the next few years they need Lee more than they need Jeter.

By "few," do you mean when Lee is ages 37, 38, 39 and 40(the last 4 years of his 7 year contract), each of which look like they would pay him upwards of $23,000,000 per year?
Lee, as a pitcher at those ages is worth $8,000,000 per year(or so) more per year than the guy who led your team to multiple World Championships?
I am being rhetorical. At least from my seat, MLB GM's love the guy on the other team.
Somehow, Marvin Miller knew that.
Boras knows that.
Hendry pays $10,000,000 for a 1B who hit .196 and declares him the full package to meet the Cubs 1B needs.
Pretty obvious I am a players advocate, especially when the guy with the checkbook hides all his cards and numbers.
No one is forcing the GM's to pay these amounts and these years. I am not one to sit and "cheer" the Yankees when they hold the line with Jeter only to turn around and treat Lee in exactly the same way they did Burnett and the opposite way they treated Jeter.

Infield,

I agree the seven years would make the last few years vastly overpaid. I just feel the Yankees can get to possibly win the Series with the loss of any one regular player they have but without another top pitcher, their chances are dim. In the playoffs, I don't know how to quantify it but pitching seems to take on even more importance than in the regular season--JMO. I think during the regular season a good hitting team can slug itself to victories during certain periods, but in the playoffs that rarely happens in more than one or two games of a series. I also have another screwed up personal theory that pitchers can be effective or at least contribute more at an older age than regualr players.

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I also have another screwed up personal theory that pitchers can be effective or at least contribute more at an older age than regular players. Smile

But, during the first 3 years of that contract, that old Geezer in decline is going to be chasing and missing all those balls at shortstop.
Maybe they are paying all that money because, as a lefty, Lee falls off the mound to his right... to field and protect the balls that "creeky" old Jeter isn't going to field.
Lee must have to field a "Jeter" and 1/2 so he gets $15,000,000 plus 1/2 and they round up?
Maybe Cashman is a genius!!!

I think the best thing that could ever have happened for Lee is for the other premium free agents to get these huge contracts first with none of them going to the Yankees. The Yankees just get more desperate and when they get desperate they tend to slightly overdo things. Kind of like using an atom bomb to crack a safe. And then they dare to make their 37 year old shortstop scrimp by on 17 million a year.

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And then they dare to make their 37 year old shortstop scrimp by on 17 million a year.

Well, there you go, deflation is a very, very real issue.
Good thing his tax rate isn't going to increase. How the heck can anyone survive with a 25% pay cut and his tax bracket going up?

ESPN:

Rangers president Nolan Ryan was told of the Yankees' going to seven years on ESPN's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" earlier Thursday.

"We have to be concerned about that because seven years for any contract is really stretching it out," he said. "And I don't know how you predict how anyone is performing six or seven years from now."

Ryan didn't say that seven years exceeded the Rangers' limit, but he did say: "Everything has a ceiling that they have to understand what it is. And it doesn't make economic sense after a certain threshold."

I'm beginning to feel more and more that New York will not be denied on acquiring Lee. Texas has to have limits they won't venture beyond fiscally. There will be other great pitchers in other years down the line.

The Yankees need Lee to face the Sox's five lefties lineup. My guess is they will get two or three years of production from him and the rest will be overpaying.

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Originally posted by Three Bagger:
I think the best thing that could ever have happened for Lee is for the other premium free agents to get these huge contracts first with none of them going to the Yankees. The Yankees just get more desperate and when they get desperate they tend to slightly overdo things. Kind of like using an atom bomb to crack a safe. And then they dare to make their 37 year old shortstop scrimp by on 17 million a year.

I can't see the Yankees panicking over this year's free agent signings. Their big need is pitching and so far, the big free agent signings are position players. Yankees need is a big-time starting pitcher. There's only one on the market this year. The other one, nobody was going to get because the Yankee closer was going nowhere. What these other contracts do will drive up price and years for Lee, but whoever is in the Lee sweepstakes is who the Yankees are in a battle with. The other free agents have no bearing on the Yankees or any other team desperate to sign to sign Lee.

Actually, the more free agents that sign big contracts, the more it works in the Yankees favor because Texas can't match the Yankees offers.

At this point, Texas is gonna have to do lots of tap dancing and convincing while the Yanks can just throw more money at his feet.