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A bizarre press conference ended an equally bizarre sequence of contract negotiations between Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees.
On Tuesday, Jeter and the Yankee brass were in Tampa, FL to announce the iconic shortstop’s new 3 year, $51 million contract. Given Jeter’s tenure and importance to the organization, it was a formality that Jeter would sign with the only club he’s ever played for and both sides would be delighted moving forward.
Instead, the Yankees were unwilling to pay the 36-year-old the kind of money he wanted and rather than the four to five year contract Jeter was asking for, the Yankees felt like three years was more appropriate. When he got the chance to speak publicly about it, Jeter was “angry.”
Jeter said his anger came from “how public” the contract negotiations became, as well as the response he got from the Yankee front office telling him to test the free-agent market for a better offer if he didn’t like theirs.
“I was the one who said, ‘I wasn’t going to do it.’ To hear the organization to tell me to go shop it, when I just told you I wasn’t going to, yeah, if I’m going to be honest I was angry about it,” Jeter said as owner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman — the two men handling the negotiations on behalf of the Yankees — sat by and listened. Cashman responded by reciprocating Jeter’s sentiments, “Anger met anger…You get past it and you move forward,” he said, referring to the manner in which the talks between both sides became the subject of daily media attention. Steinbrenner even chimed in, “We were all upset and a little bit angry that it reached the level that it did.”
Everybody is just pissed off about the whole thing. Tough to blame them though really, when you think about it. Jeter debuted for the Yankees in 1995. That means they’ve been with each other for 16 years. For 16 years the Bombers have filled their void at shortstop with Jeter’s services; and on the other end, Jeter doesn’t even know what it feels like to wear another jersey. You have to appreciate the commitment displayed for the better part of two decades, but you also can’t be too shocked if one side got a little bit “curious” during the brief, one-month separation. Jeter said he didn’t, compromising his initial contract demands for a more humble —and realistic — deal worth half the money he originally asked for. Were the Yankees looking for a younger prize?
The Yankees come out looking like they can’t live without Jeter, which is essentially true. No baseball fan wanted to see No. 2 in a different uniform, and the sheer jealousy that would come of him wearing anything other than pinstripes was probably enough to fuel a consensual agreement.
The relationship has weathered its biggest storm yet, and in the end, love prevailed. The anger has subsided and Jeter is anxious to put the 2010 season behind him and start anew with a fresh contract. “You like to think that last year was a hiccup. It is my job to prove that it was.”
A silver-lining can be found in the suddenness of the drop-off in his numbers. In 2009 his numbers were vintage Jeter with .334, 212 hits, 107 runs at the top of a Yankee lineup that won the World Series. The cliff-like fall can either be a mirage — one bad season in a brilliant career — or an abrupt beginning to the end.
After a messy breakup, Jeter and the Yanks are back together again. He has three years and $51 million dollars to try to make it work.
