Courtesy of Yankees 'n More
According to this Bill Madden column from Friday's New York Daily-News, Derek Jeter has asked the New York Yankees to give him a six-year contract worth $150 million. Furthermore, while the Jeter camp might be willing to cave a bit on length, "They aren't budging on $25 million per season."
And people think Brian Cashman was being harsh when he told the captain of the Yankees he should take the team's 3-for-45 offer to the market and see if he can do better.
By the way, it's important to note that this information, according to Madden, is coming from "sources [as in multiple] close to the Jeter/[agent Casey] Close camp."
Derek Jeter is either delusional or high or both. Regardless of his thinking, even his strongest supporters cannot possibly defend such a demand, not that you'd find any of those people around here. We saw Derek Jeter play last seaso, and think the 3/45 offer is way too high.
Jeter, at this stage of his career, has no range, no power and a mediocre arm. And he's insisting that the Yankees gift wrap $25 million a season for him for each of the next five or six years?
Good grief; the Yankees refused to offer Jeter arbitration because they didn't want to face the possibility of being forced to pay him in the $25 million range for ONE season—Now the 37-year-old shortstop is asking them to do it for SIX?
In an attempt to put Jeter's request into perspective, ask yourself this question: If you had your choice of Cliff Lee AND another $10-20 million or Derek Jeter, which would you prefer?
For what Jeter is asking/demanding, the Yankees could EASILY cover Lee's contract AND bring back Andy Pettitte, should he choose to return for one more season.
As far as we're concerned, Derek Jeter can go piss up a rope, and then try to find somebody else willing to give him three years and $45 million worth of charity, much less six and $150M!
We're quite confident Eduardo Nunez (making the minimum) can start at shortstop next season and put up the same .710 OPS Jeter did in 2010, and he'll do so while making the team's defense SIGNIFICANTLY better than it was with Jeter.
And the bonuses don't stop there. You also don't have to worry about offending Nunez by hitting him at the bottom of the order, which is exactly where THIS Derek Jeter should have been hitting in 2010. The Yankees had MUCH better options than Jeter for each of the top two spots in their 2010 batting order (Brett Gardner and Nick Swisher) but cut off their noses, at least to some degree, to cater to the ego of Yankee captain.
How can a name on the back of the jersey POSSIBLY matter this much to a team that doesn't put names on the backs of their jerseys?
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