WHAT'S A JETER WORTH?

What would YOU pay Jeter if you were the Yankees?

According to ESPN, sources inside the New York Yankees are stating they are “at odds” with shortstop Derek Jeter regarding a new contract.

The Yankees, reportedly, are OK with giving the 36 year old, who posted career worst numbers in 2010, a contract in the area of 3 years at $21 million per. Jeter is looking for at least a 4 year contract, and prefers a 5 or 6 year deal.

There’s at least one unsympathetic voice in the Yankee front office. "Tell him the deal is three years at $15 million a year, take it or leave it," the person taking the hard-line approach said. "Wait him out and he'll wind up taking it. Where's he gonna go, Cincinnati?"

Are we really looking at a potential face-off between the richest and most popular organization in American professional sports and their most marketable and popular player? If so, who wins? Or, better yet, who should relent? Who needs who the most? Sounds like questions for a guy who loves answering these types of questions.

No, jackass. I mean me.

Let’s do this in reverse:

WHO NEEDS WHO THE MOST?

Derek Jeter is the face of the New York Yankees.  Next time you visit Yankee Stadium, take a look around the stadium. For every one Alex Rodriguez or CC Sebathia jersey, you’ll see seventy-two Jeter ones. And I may be low-balling that estimate. To use an old cliché, guys want to be him and girls want to be with him. With all due respect to Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, and Reggie, Derek Jeter IS Mr. Yankee. He’s the guy with the big smile and who plays with an even bigger heart. Remember the play against the Red Sox when he went full speed and face first into the stands, emerging bloodied and with the ball in his mitt? (here) I’m a Sox fan and even I applauded the play. It personifies the player even more than this famous hustle play. The man cares about winning. Is there a price tag for that?

But, he did post career lows in 2010. His batting average falling 44 points from his career average, his home run total was its lowest since 2003, when he only played 119 games, and his .710 OPS was the lowest of his career, sixty-one points below his previous worst outing, which happened only two years earlier. His range is diminishing at short, and he’s too proud to change positions. He’s 36 years old, which is much older than 36 was five years ago, when performance enhancing drugs allowed for players to be productive into their late thirties and early forties. Ain’t that right, Barry? With a six-year contract, the Yankees would be paying him $21 million in a season where he’ll turn 43. Very few players can even last that long, let alone be effective enough to be paid that much.

And, this may be hard to hear, but the Yankees don’t need Derek Jeter on the field or in the wallet. Yes, he still puts more effort into a meaningless July match-up with the Royals than Manny Ramirez puts into game seven of the World Series. And, he is as prepared as any player in, perhaps, the history of the game. There’s a reason even opposing teams refer to him as “Mr. Intangible.” And, he’s still clutch. He knows what to do in every situation and will do all the little things. He sells more swag than George Lucas, and is more popular in The City than every other player who plays for a New York team…combined.  

But, how much money do you think the Yankees lose if they part ways with Jeter? On the field, they can move Alex Rodriguez to short, pay Adrian Beltre less than Jeter to play third, and have a better hitting and better fielding line-up for less. No disrespect to Derek, but at this point in his career, that statement is not a lie. And, it’s not like the fans aren’t going to suddenly stop buying Yankee shirts, hats, trailer hitch covers, and snow globes just because number two isn’t on them anymore. And, there won’t be even one more empty seat in the Stadium just because El Capitan has rode his burro to San Diego. (except those $2000 seats behind home plate. But those would be empty if the Pope were pitching to Elvis’ reincarnated body.) Bottom line: The Yankees would hardly lose a dime.

Do the Yankees stop selling these if
Jeter leaves?

Not that losing a dime would matter to the Yankees. Here is a franchise worth a billion dollars, or about as much as Mark Zuckerberg. The Yankees never worry about money. They don’t have to. There’s a reason they have a two-hundred-million dollar payroll. Because they can. The Steinbrenner boys wouldn’t spend the money if they didn’t have it. They can afford to pay AJ Burnett $17 million to be a mediocre Triple-A pitcher, and they can eat Carl Pavano’s contract without getting indigestion. Which begs the question, then why can’t the just pay the single most important player in Yankee history more than his market value?

WHO SHOULD RELENT?

Ladies love Jeter.

This is a tough question. Jeter is certainly asking for much more than his actual worth as a player. But, he knows (as does his agent) that the Yankees are in a pickle with him, running between over-paying an aging player who’s showing signs of declining skills and letting the most famous head to ever have the entangled NY logo atop it walk away in anger. He has given his adult life to the New York Yankees. He’s kept his nose clean and caused absolutely no trouble at all, which, in the age of the twenty-four hour news cycle that managed to bring Tiger Woods down, cannot be overlooked. He has been an exemplary citizen, has taken enough weight off A-Rod’s PED-enhanced shoulders to legally claim him as a dependent (and he doesn’t even like A-Rod), and has caused a virtual avalanche of pink Yankee hats. And, hell, the dude did win a Gold Glove in 2010, even though that award is more grossly flawed than the Heisman Trophy. He still hits as well as most shortstops in the American League. And, thanks to a career free from PED’s (we all hope. Yes, even me), he won’t pull a Miguel Tejada, and completely disappear.

But, if Jeter is worth a $120 million contract, then what’s Cliff Lee worth? $200 million? The day Derek Jeter signs that contract, every other player in Major League Baseball, and most certainly those pursued by the Yankees, will demand more money. And, the guys in the most demand will get it. If the Yankees relent, and pay Jeter the contract he desires, they are, in turn, screwing every other tea m in the league and officially entering the Royals, Pirates, Rays, Padres, A’s and Brewers onto the Endangered Species list. What will Hanley Ramirez be worth at his next contract? Or Troy Tulowitzki? If Jeter is making $21 mil then it’s not unreasonable to see Hanley demand $25 mil per year. And, if Hanley demands $25, Albert Pujols will get somewhere around the gross national product of Brazil. Do Hank and Hal Steinbrenner want to set this precedent?  There are better ways they could spend their money. Like, say, on Hanley Ramirez in a few years.

The issue for Jeter is that no other team in baseball is going to sniff the ass of a six-year, $120 million contract. He may get a two or three year deal in the thirty to fifty million dollar range. But, only one team in baseball can and would pay that kind of money for him. That, of course, being his current team.

So, when all is said and done, Jeter will relent. He’ll agree to $21 million per year the next three years, then go home and make love to Esquire magazine’s sexiest woman of 2010. (here) The Steinbrenners will smile as they bite their lip. Even rich dudes don’t like paying too much for something. The sides will shake hands, and it’ll back to the business at hand, signing Cliff Lee and making another run at the World Series. I just vomited in my mouth writing that last sentence.

 WHO WINS?

The Yankee fans get to see their icon for three more years. Jeter gets Minka a new Bentley. The Steinbrenner’s don’t get creamed by the media.

Hanley in his former and future uniform

But, the biggest winner of all will be the Boston Red Sox, who will trade for Hanley Ramirez during the 2^nd year of the Derek Jeter farewell tour, acquiring the best shortstop in baseball and locking him up long term. And, they will also win more World Series during the last three years of Jeter’s career than the Yankees will.

What, you thought I was going to write an entire piece solely on the Yankees and Jeter, and not slip in a little shove? Come on.