Then again maybe he doesn't. I mean, let's be clear... who doesn't want $150 mil? But of course, none of us are gonna get it from the Yankees, including Jeter, who of course, denies making such a request. I'm a Yankee fan by birth, and I'm already getting sick of the play this is getting in the national media. And this latest cheap trick is as tired as it gets.
My Mom used to pull this with her boss. If she wanted a two week vacation she would tell her workmate that she was thinking of taking two months, letting her boss overhear it of course. The boss would be in a minor state of panic (it was a very small office). He would come out and say "Two MONTHS?" "Did I say months? Oh! I meant weeks! Two weeks!" And my Mom's relieved boss would happily grant the request.
The New York Yankees, love them or hate them, are not a very small office. They are a very big, very successful, and at times a very savvy operation. They do tend to 'overpay' for players from time to time, but thus far they have only done so with their own money... lots and lots of it. But those huge gobs of money come with one very important condition. Winning.
If the Yanks were to have the temerity to finish say, third, for three straight seasons , they would be as relevant as... well... nothing. Those empty $250 dollar seats everybody likes to make fun of? They would be clean and germ-free for a long, long time. And signing formerly dominant greats to huge contracts would be a guaranteed route to that point.
New Yorkers don't abide by losers and also-rans very well. They can't. And they don't have to. There are just too many other things to do besides watch a team deteriorate before their eyes. So many Broadway shows. So many nightclubs, movie houses, world-class restaurants and live music venues. And so many other sports teams. The typical St. Louis Cardinal fan, for example, travels further to get to Busch Stadium than a Yankee fan would travel to see the Red Sox or Phillies at Fenway or Citizens Bank Park.
The Yanks need to let their free agents test the market. All of them. There's nothing wrong with making each of them a reasonable offer. The $45 milllion, 3 year deal the Yanks have supposedly put on the table is unresonable... unresonably high. If Jeter has any business sense, he's signing it so fast he's risking paper cuts. And if the Yankees have any, they're not only putting a deadline to the offer, they're actively looking for alternatives at the same time. Lots of guys ca npick it at shortstop. Lots of guys can hit .270 and drive in 60-odd runs. You don't need that package in one player. And if you signed two different players to cover that, it damn sure wouldn't cost $45 million for both of them.
Offer them arbitration! I know the Yanks are reluctant to do it. But even if the arbitrator sides with the player on a ridiculously high figure, as arbitrators nowadays tend to do, it would only be for one year... not three or four or five. The Yanks would not be hamstrung with another long, ridiculous A.J.Burnett type deal. And if the player declines arbitration, at least the Yanks would be in line for draft picks... which they need anyway.
Look... as a lifelong Yankee rooter, I am abjectly grateful to the heroes who brought the Bombers back from oblivion... Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, Davids Cone and Wells, Brosius, Tino, even Tim Raines, Chili Davis and the Strawman. Where have they all gone? Where Derek and the other dominoes are headed. But as thankful as I am for their contributions to Yankee greatness and lure, Steinbrenner the younger is absolutely right... the Yanks have paid them all very, very handsomely for their efforts. It is not necessary for the fans, or the Yankees to pay them again.
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