The offer has been put on the table, but either someone has burned the contract offer, misplaced it, or Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter is neglecting the Yankees 3-year, 45 million dollar offer that is patiently waiting on the Yankees GM Brian Cashman’s desk.
Jeter is a symbolic icon of the New York Yankees, and has been with the franchise since the baby-faced New Jersey native stepped his way up to the big leagues in 1995.
But coming off an expired 10-year, 189 million dollar contract, his future in pin stripes is looking much more bleak and transparent, as the Yankees offer currently collects dust.
Cashman is not quite living up to his name, refusing to budge on the offer he has given the 36-year-old. Jeter made 21 million in 2010, and is taking a pay cut after showing signs of his age.
He was down in nearly every offensive statistical category, and even appeared to have less spunk defensively.
Jeter is a cultural icon in the Bronx and acts as a symbol for the organization no other Yankee can currently hold. He is what Lou Gherig, Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio stood for during their tenure in early Yankees history.
But they weren’t paid like these athletes are now, and Jeter needs a dose of some “reality potion”; he needs a sip of it to stop his ego from getting in motion.
Jeter’s ego is extraterrestrial; it’s simply out of this world. So while Jeter is light years away from getting his ego in check (the ego he has is over is head and outside the Milky Way Galaxy), what he needs is a reality check.
Because in reality, baseball is a business and they do not pay you for your image, they pay you to play baseball. Derek Jeter isn’t patented or copyrighted to Derek Jeter so you might as well not act like it is.
But for Jeter, he believes he can play another seven years, until he is almost 43, and wants a long-term contract in the nine-figure ballpark.
Yes, Alex Rodriguez was signed to a 10-year, 275 million dollar deal that pays him 27 million a year until he is 42, but that was then and this is now.
The Yankees are already offering Jeter double what he would be payed by every other team, so the sooner Jeter can get his ego in check, the faster the deal can get finalized.
The longer he holds out, the more tarnished his image becomes. In the end, he’s just a baseball player.
Baseball is a business, and Cashman decided to carry a big stick and swat away any “big-money” offer for the seasoned veteran, assuming we of course believe 15 million is measly pay.
If the Yankees want to make any attempt at reaching an agreement, they should come up with the great compromise. No, they won’t count Jeter as three-fifths a person, but what they should do is make the rest of the deal strictly performance-based as a way to motivate him to get the deal finalized.
Jeter gets his money, but he has to earn it. 45 million guaranteed and another 20 million performance based: games played, batting average, number of hits, etc. So the Yankees risk paying him the money, but at the same time Jeter has to earn what he is asking for.
The great compromise. Call it controversial, but if Jeter ever wants to wear pin stripes again, he also needs to make a compromise.
Unfortunately for Jeter, he isn’t ever going to be on a one-way street with the Yankees organization. It’s a two-way street and will go both ways.