According to reports the Yanks have measurably improved their offer to Jeter. Because DJ has so many other comparable ones, we're sure.
Of course, Jeter is totally disinterested in being a Yankee lifer and all-time legend and having all the things that will bring him financially after he stops playing. So they obviously have to up the offer to counteract those feelings.
11 replies on “Barack Obama, Yankees Lead Negotiator?”
BREAKING NEWS!!!! MO RE-SIGNS!!! 2 years, $30 million…nice.
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5877705
yeah, good news krueg, but no surprise…my guess is that this strengthens jeter’s case a bit…the argument around here usually is that starting pitchers and position players should be valued more than closers…even the greatest of all time…probably the reason for the yanks counter-offer to their own offer…gives jeter a chance to save face, and puts him a notch or 2 above his fellow future hall of famer, compensation-wise…
i’m not sure why you had to put such a sarcastic spin on it sf…isn’t the “tenor” of the discussion the exact reason paul decided to to take his half-season hiatus?…i’m thinking that the yanks had a number in mind all along that was somewhat north of the 15/3 we’ve been hearing about [it’s unlikely that seasoned negotiators would start at their highest offer], even though i believe 15/3 is more than fair, so i’m not defending the revised-offer…it’s way more than market value, but recognizing that the value of jeter to the yankees is different than it is to the other teams, not to mention the pr implications, it might make sense for them to sweeten the pot getting closer to whatever “magic number” they decided to target in the first place…this has been discussed already…
In 2010, Mariano Rivera was worth 1.7 WAR, according to Fanraphs, while Jeter was worth 2.5. Don’t think for a second Jeter’s agent isn’t reminding Cashman of those numbers. (I’m more inclined to go with the B-R numbers for pitchers myself, which give Rivera 3.0 WAR last season.)
The Yanks are literally bidding against themselves here.
Good for them for locking up Mo. Unlike Jeter, he’s worth every penny (regardless of what WAR says).
good point paul…interesting that ath seems to disagree…the thing about stats is that they can live by them or die by them…but they can’t just cherry-pick certain ones to use when it’s convenient…and i’m sure that just as you say, jeter’s agent is hammering home that point…
Well, agents and teams certainly can and do cherry pick in negotiations, which was kinda my point. Jeter’s agent will be bringing up Fangraphs; Cashman will be bringing up Baseball-Reference, which has Rivera as more than twice as valuable as Jeter, thanks to the difference in how those sites measure peripheral numbers versus actual runs allowed in formulating WAR.
That’s an interesting point, Paul.
I think that hurts the Yankees, of course. But the biggest element is that of competition. For Rivera, one might imagine several teams lining up and offering Mo a rather hefty amount of money, if he wasn’t offered bags already by another team. With Jeter, not so much. So regardless of what WAR says, the Yankees are sitting better with Jeter, they just don’t have someone else to negotiate against for his services, unless there’s some sort of Scott Boras fantasy offer (like he said he had for Damon at one point) that the Yankees get bluffed into matching.
That was the jist of my title, dc – that the Yankees are upping an offer when they may have no real reason to, other than courtesy and sentiment and gratitude. All good reasons, perhaps, but in the grand scheme of things unnecessary in the absence of tangible lucrative offers from other teams that Jeter would accept.
“…unnecessary in the absence of tangible lucrative offers from other teams…”
and i would have agreed if this was just “joe random-ballplayer”…but it’s not so we get the yankees’ token gesture of more money to a guy who’s become the face of the yankees, one of the few captains in nyy history, and a certain hall of famer…like we yankee fans hear incessantly, what’s a few mil more to the yankees?…
I really wish Rivera would have chosen the Sox’ reported three-year offer. Would have been all sorts of fun to see the exploding heads in New York.
Yeah, it would have been fun to see, but then April would come, and the realization that we had a 42 year old closer making 15M a year for 2 more years would set in. I mean, nothing against NY for doing this, but it seems crazy considering the age and the already in place restrictions on the guy. But, if anyone deserves to get paid for whom he is and what he’s done, it’s Mo. I keep saying that “this year is the year”, and every year they just pull in the reigns a little more and he ends up just as successful when it’s all said and done. He’s a machine, but I want nothing to do with him at this point.
In reality, I was kind of really hoping that the Sox non-tendered Papelbon and signed Bobby Jenks, who will be about half as much per year, and could have probably been had for a three year deal. If he fails, then Bard gets the ball a year earlier than planned and you have a couple of the hardest throwing guys in baseball in the back of the bullpen. Either way, payroll would have dropped and Papelbon would be gone, so I’d be happy on both accounts.
However, this could have been the time when the Sox did force NY’s hand on Mo’s contract. I’m sure NY would have much rather given Mo a one year bigger deal, but if he had a real offer from Boston, they had to go all in…no way they let Mo leave, but really, I think Mo is probably the one guy who would choose to leave 15M on the table quicker than ruin all he’s worked for in NY the past what seems like fifty years.