It's hard to fathom any franchise, including the one of the most means, to offer a declining (in skills if not in leadership) shortstop more than 3 years at $15 million per year when he's 36 years old. So while many have much admiration for Jeter, he's probably not being realistic, even if the Yankees foolishly agreed to pay A-Rod half of Fort Knox for him to play until he's 42. In the coin of the realm, Jeter might not believe he warrants A-Rod's annual salary, but he probably believes that with all he's done for the franchise, he's owed a longer contract. And what Derek Jeter doesn't realize that even in the Bronx, where the team seems to play with "Monopoly" money, there isn't always enough to satisfy anyone. But baseball is a business, sometimes brutally so, and what Derek Jeter is seeing now is that even with all that's he's done, players get paid for performance, especially in the last portions of their careers. There is no consideration for potential, and there is, especially now, in this economy, only a small premium for past greatness.
It's a tough reckoning, and it's hard to watch it publicly. But the faceless Yankees have a better point, and what Derek Jeter might find is that he'll get a better offer, and then, perhaps, have to deal with the reality that he's just another guy in Baltimore, Houston or Anaheim, and not the leader of the Yankees. And then he'll have to decide whether he'd rather be the iconic #2 in Yankee pinstripes who played his whole career for the same team, or, like many Hall of Famers, a fading star on an also-ran team with a more than half-empty stadium. If he chooses the latter, he'll get a premium; if he chooses the former, he'll have to agree to a discount that takes into account the value of playing before adoring crowds in a city that he loves and that loves him back. How much is that worth to him?
We'll all find out soon enough.
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