What the Aaron Boone are the Yankees doing?
Derek Jeter is the greatest baseball player of this era. Let me repeat that, Derek Sanderson Jeter, is the greatest baseball player of this era.
He was Rookie of the Year, has eleven All-Star appearances, 5 Gold Gloves, 4 Silver Sluggers, 5 World Series rings, is the Yankee leader in nearly all offensive categories, has an All-Star MVP and World Series MVP, in the same year.
Getting bored yet?
He has the fifth highest batting average among active players, has served 7 years as the Yankees captain; only thirteen players ever, have been named captain, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Thurman Munson, Don Mattingly, and other greats. He is also the hits leader among all shortstops, ever.
So, with all those accomplishments and many more, why am I hearing his name in the news, other then to tell me about his upcoming nuptials to Minka Kelly?
He kisses her on the strikes, she kisses him on the balls...
I don’t care and or want to hear that the Yankees brass is telling him to basically take a flyer out and see what the free agent market looks like.
As much of a Yankee homer as I am, I understand that the man is 36 years-old, and that in comparison, he had one of his worst offensive seasons (as an eternal Yankee optimist, he could have just been having a down year). But all joking aside, yes, he’s getting up there in age, but as captain, the face of a franchise, and the best player and human in sports, what are the Yankees doing broadcasting there negotiations with him to the world?
As of right now, the Yankees and I say Yankees I mean Brian Cashman, Randy Levine, and the Steinbrenner boys, have offered Jeter a three-year, $45 million dollar contract. Is that worthy of a shortstop who batted .270 with 67 RBI's and 10 homeruns; yeah it's more than worthy. But these are the Yankees, and at this point in Derek Jeter's career it has less to do with numbers and more to do with the person.
When you're the team that's been labeled the "Evil Empire" and offer players two and three times more than market value, the time to play hardball is not with arguably one of the best players in your franchises history.
This comes down to respect and when the player to Jeter's right is making $33 million, that $15 million offer seems like a slap in the face. He's won one ring, Jeter's won five and never failed a drug test, and never had his name on any list. Everything that Derek Jeter has achieved has been through good, hard, honest work.
So in true Yankee fashion, this contract negotiation can be traced back to where essentially all
Yankee problems can: Alex Rodriguez.
