I really should not care (I don' really). I really really should not be publicly doing a diary on this. The whole screwed up salary structure and misplaced priorities of it all is ridiculous. Even to admit to thinking about and discussing it goes against all my values.
But anyway: What should Derek Jeter's contract look like.
The correct answer is obvious ;)
On the one hand:
- Jeter had his worst year last year.
- He is getting old and has not been a superior defensive shortstop in years.
- The fear is that he is just headed into steady decline, both offensively and defensively.
On the other hand:
- He has limited range but decent consistency defensively.
- A couple of years ago, when his defense (especially range) had really declined and sucked, he showed that with off season training he could improve (somewhat) again.
- He actually had one of the highest WAR's (win above replacement) the year before last. It is definitely possible that last years offensive numbers (batting average, on base percentage; he is never a home run guy) is not the beginning of the end, but something of an aberration.
Coming off a $189 million, 10-year contract (18.0 million per year), Jeter initially had been offered a $45 million, three-year deal (15 million per year; and other's contracts are of course higher now than 10 years ago).
Jeter wants "respect" and something closer to a follow-up on his prior peak years contract, taking into account what other top players make. And he want more guaranteed years, perhaps five.
The Yankees fear being stuck with a overpaid (even by the absurdistan standards we are talking about here) player for too many, way after he is in permanent decline. And they need to be thinking of new shortstop.
The obvious answer, to me anyway, is give him the five years guaranteed, out of the whole "respect" and "make him a Yankee forever" thing. But make the baseline guaranteed dollars on the lower side, and make up for that with lots of performance based incentives. Jeter has shown that he can get better again, recapture some youth, with off season training. He may just need incentives to do it.
That is all.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
P.S.: Go Jets
