Jeter's value "can't be overstated" because he "embodies the heart of a champion."

[Bigpapa42]

This situation alone is making baseball free agency fun this year. I truly hope that the Yankees don't capitulate on this. Jeter isn't about to sit out the year. I'm really curious how he would react if they started looking around at other shortstops...

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Derek Jeter "chooses not" to be a Yankee.
When asked about Jeter and the negotiating process, Cashman said: "He should be nothing but a New York Yankee. He chooses not to be." Cashman told Newsday's Ken Davidoff that the Yankees have offered multiple deals and received just one counter offer. The Yankees have already offered a three-year, $45 million contract, but agent Casey Close didn't like the proposal and said the Yankees' negotiating strategy has been "baffling." Cashman said Tuesday that Jeter "should test the market" if he doesn't approve of the club's offer. These negotiations are quickly getting ugly. Buckle up.

Haha.. I love it.

 

[kmanharris]

Haha.. I love it.

I am all for Jeter ending his career as a Yankee but he will not get a better offer from another team, its not going to happen. This reeks 100% of Jeter's agent. I just don't see Jeter doing this on his own.

 

[Chrispy]

lol @ baffling, go try to field another offer from another team and see what they give Jeter, his agent should just shut the fuck up and accept the deal. Im glad the yankees are playing hardball, i would love for Jeter to stay a yankee but if he does leave its not the end of the world.

 

[NAHSTE]

:jonesy:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...ts/baseball/yankees+(Sports/Baseball/Yankees)

Turns out when Hal Steinbrenner said these Yankees-Derek Jeter negotiations might get "messy" he wasn't merely posturing. But did anyone really believe they'd get this messy?

Some day, somehow Jeter and the Yankees are going to tie the knot again, if only because it would be suicidal on both their parts not to. But right now they're at least $80 million apart, probably more, and neither side is budging. If you ask me, the Yankees shouldn't have to budge off their reported three-year, $45 million offer to their iconic team captain for a lot of reasons. The problem is, in taking the justifiably hard line they have, telling Jeter to go shop their offer to see if anyone else is inclined to even come close to matching it, much less topping it, they've now painted him into a corner from which it will be hard to get out of and still save public face.

Better they should have just told the world how greedy and unreasonable Jeter and his agent, Casey Close, are being in this negotiation. To do that, however, apparently would have been to betray an agreement the two sides made going in - which was not to negotiate in the media or reveal each other's positions. The reason the Yankees' offer is out there is because whenever a club makes an offer to a free agent it becomes common knowledge in the central offices of baseball and throughout the industry. On the other hand, the players' and agents' asking prices never get revealed unless they themselves let them be known.

Throughout this process, Close and Jeter have never revealed what they're actually looking for - which is why so many Yankee fans, opposing club officials and nationwide media types are asking: Why are the Yankees treating Jeter this way? But sources close to the Jeter/Close camp have said their starting point was six years, $150 million and that they aren't budging on $25 million per year - which would effectively get the captain about even in annual average salary to Alex Rodriguez, the real benchmark from their standpoint in this negotiation.

I suspect this is why Yankee GM Brian Cashman lashed out the way he did the other day after Close told the Daily News' Mike Lupica he was "baffled" by the Yankees' hard-line stance with Jeter.

Cashman is clearly frustrated. The Yankees made no secret of where they were coming from in this negotiation - that it was a baseball negotiation, a business negotiation, and not a public relations and marketing negotiation. Just the same, they structured their offer to be significantly higher in both years and dollars than any 36-year-old shortstop, coming off a season in which he hit a career-low .270 and his OPS dropped 161 points to .710, also a career low, could expect in the open market. They did that because, as everyone knows, Jeter is not just any shortstop. He is an iconic Yankee shortstop, and, as such, the Yankees are prepared to pay him upwards of $2 million more than any middle infielder in baseball today for the next three years. Add the $45 million to the $200 million they've already paid him and, at nearly $250 million, Jeter will have been paid more than any other player in the history of baseball except A-Rod and (when he gets his next deal) Albert Pujols.

 

[Chrispy]

lmao @ 6 years 150 mill, he would get nothing close to that from any team. The offer the Yanks give him is going to be the best, either he takes it or retires. For that kind of money id rather invest in a young stud.

 

[DJ Rhude]

I totally understand the Yankees stance......we'd rather overpay for someone else's old free agent instead of our own

 

[EmpireWF]

I can't help but laugh at some of the calls to WFAN about Jeter.

Fans sound like a war is on the horizon and the world may come to an end if Jeter ever plays for another team.

Oh woe are the Yankees if they don't have their captain back...

 

[Bigpapa42]

So apparently the Yankees are willing to up their offer. Boo.