Jeets

I love reading the stories about the Yankees' negotiations with Derek Jeter this off-season. At $22.6 M last year, Jeter was without question one of baseball's most overpaid players. Point to his leadership skills and embarrasing Gold Glove all you like, but the guy OPS+'d 90 (8th out of 8 qualifying Yankee batters, i.e. last) and had the worst range of any starting shortstop in MLB (Range Factor). Say what you like about defensive stats, but when you're LAST, that means something.

Anyway, Jeter's deal with the Yankees is up, and the sides are negotiating a new deal. Jeter is technically a free agent, but do you really think he's going anywhere else? Now given his "production" last year (2010 WAR = 1.3, just below, for example, Austin Kearns and Russell Branyan) and the fact that he turns 37 next year, he can't realistically be worth more than, I don't know, $3 M a year? Naturally, the Yankees have offered him a three-year deal worth $15 M a year, vastly outbidding themselves for a player who was exactly as valuable last season as Yuniesky Betancourt. Did I mention that Jeter was born in 1974?

Hilariously, and not-at-all unexpectedly, his agent Casey Close finds this lowball offer "baffling." I find it baffling too, though perhaps not for the same reasons as does Mr. Close. My favorite line from the espn story:

[Close] argued that the team is not looking at Jeter's 16-year body of work in New York and is instead focusing on his age and off year in 2010.

Really? You mean they're evaluating his prospects for future production when trying to decide a fair amount to compensate him for future production? What a concept! I think the Yankees are focusing on Jeter's 16-year body of work in New York, and while doing so are focusing on the fact that they already paid him $205.43 M for said body of work (according to baseball-reference). That's not a typo - it's over two hundred million dollars. Close somehow seems confused that the Yankees don't want to continue paying Jeter for 1996-2010 even though they've already dropped a quarter of a billion for his services over that time period.

If I were the Yankees, I think I'd be inclined to play hardball, no pun intended. They can still totally win without Jeter (that one win over a replacement player he provides seems, well, replaceable) and they know that he (a) doesn't want to go anywhere else and (b) couldn't get more than $15 M a season anywhere else. Frankly, I'm surprised the offer was that high. As much as I can't stand supporting the Yankees here, I think I have to. At least I get to back them in an argument against a Yankee.