Nostalgia be damned, Yankees need to play hardball with Jeter
Friday, August 20, 2010
No one else will have the balls to say it, so I will:
The New York Yankees need to be stingy as hell with Derek Jeter when his contract expires at the end of the season. I’m talking Ebenezer Scrooge stinginess, as if Jeter were Bob Cratchit in pinstripes.
There’s no room for nostalgia in professional sports. Feelings can’t get in the way of finances. Jeter has been the face of the Yankees since he burst onto the scene as a 22-year-old shortstop in 1996. Thanks to “The Captain,” the Yankees won four World Series titles in five years, including three in a row from 1998 to 2000, which, coincidentally, were my final three years of college at the University of Rhode Island. What was supposed to be the height of my academic awakening ultimately digressed into a foggy, three-year orgy of cigars, calzones, 40-ounce Red Dogs in brown paper bags and obnoxious World Series celebrations that woke the neighbors.
With that said, Jeter is 36 years old. Judging by his range at shortstop – or lack thereof – he’s roughly 76 in defensive years. He’s on pace to finish 2010 with a career-low OPS of .726 and what little power he’s had throughout his illustrious tenure with the Yankees is almost non-existent. Forget the home runs, because he’ll probably finish somewhere between 10 and 15, which is on par with his usual numbers – what really shows he’s lacking pop these days is his ghastly .384 slugging percentage, which would represent a single-season career low (he’s never slugged lower than a .405 clip in a full season).
The bottom line is Jeter is old, and old players rarely have leverage when attempting to negotiate long-term contracts. Jeter will probably be the exception to this rule because he’s a New York City icon. The Yankees aren’t dumb enough to let the most recognizable face in franchise history outside of Babe Ruth skip town over a few measly millions, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to break the bank for “Captain Intangibles” and mortgage the future of your infield for the next 10 years.
Keep in mind that aging third baseman Alex Rodriguez is signed through 2017 thanks to Hank Steinbrenner’s genius decision to sign off on a 10-year contract that will pay A-Rod a whopping $20 million at the ripe old age of 41. Rodriguez can barely move now and he’s still only 34. Imagine in five years the left side of your infield featuring a 39-year-old third baseman with a bad hip and a 41-year-old shortstop who needs a fishing net to reach anything within a three-foot radius.
Obviously, neither player will man his respective position for that long, but no organization – not even the Yankees – can afford to keep re-signing players to ridiculous long-term deals under the premise that they’ll all just move to the outfield or become designated hitters when they’re too old to play real positions.
A-Rod will have to vacate third base at some point. Jorge Posada has one season remaining on the four-year extension he signed in 2007 and he’s already well past his prime defensively as a catcher. If Jeter re-signs for longer than two years, he’ll follow in A-Rod’s footsteps at some point and either DH or play the outfield before he turns 40. Do you really want someone with a declining OPS and slugging percentage playing a position more commonly reserved for power hitters?
Just because the Yankees have more money than Oprah Winfrey doesn’t mean they can piss it away irresponsibly in fear of alienating their fan base. Jeter leaving the Yankees would trigger a revolt unseen in New York since Rudy Giuliani rid the city of smut and pornography, but if his demands are unreasonable, they need to think rationally and not let history cloud their judgment.
More than anyone else on that roster, Jeter should understand the Yankees need to do what’s best for the team, not just one player – no matter how much that player transcends the organization. The 10-year extension he signed at the end of the 2000 season made sense back then; he had just won the World Series MVP and the Yankees didn’t want to wait another year until his contract expired, so – to avoid paying more the following winter – they wrapped him up for the next decade, showing no concern for what kind of player he might become by the time that contract would reach its expiration date.
When you sign a player at the peak of his excellence to a 10-year deal, you really don’t weigh the possibility of paying someone with a .339 on-base percentage a $22.6 million base salary at the age of 36, but that’s the reality of long-term contracts in any sport. What you’re hoping is the player plays his ass off for half the deal and wins you a few titles along the way so you can rationalize the contract in hindsight by the time he begins to decline, at which point you will already have been hung in effigy by frustrated fans wondering why you were that stupid to begin with.
At times like this, I wonder, “What would Belichick do?” The architect of the Patriots’ Super Bowl dynasty is known for being a cold-hearted S.O.B. when it comes to negotiating with aging superstars. Under his reign, the Patriots traded Drew Bledsoe, released Ty Law and let Adam Vinatieri sign with the Colts. They were better off because of it, too.
The Yankees need to take an equally-callous approach with Jeter. In fact, they should borrow another page from the Belichick handbook and remove all images and likenesses of Jeter from Yankee Stadium before he returns to the Bronx to meet with the front office regarding his contract.
Jeter is currently 114 hits away from 3,000. Even if he has another lousy year, he’ll reach that mark next season barring any unforeseen issues. The Yankees would love to see Jeter hit that milestone in pinstripes, but that should have no bearing on what goes on behind close doors when it’s time for the two sides to sit down and hammer out a new deal.
There’s no nostalgia in baseball. There’s no crying either, unless you’re stuck with a 41-year-old Jeter at shortstop.
Related Articles
- Latest loss highlights Cashman’s shortcomings
- Malignaggi’s meltdown leaves Italians without a hero
- One game, two viewpoints
- Remembering Sports’ Last Great Owner
- A Bronx Fail
- Don’t let the transcript fool you: Brady wants his money
- For once, this Bud’s for integrity
- Juice or no juice, A-Rod deserves props
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It