The Yankees Jeter Conundrum?
The New York Yankees are faced with an interesting free agent decision this off-season. One of the team’s and the sports’ venerable greats, shortstop Derek Jeter’s contract has expired. The face of the franchise for the last 16 years is now 36 and declining in production. However, Jeter is in a large part responsible for the franchise’s success over those same 16 seasons. He has joined the hallow names of Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, DiMaggio, Berra in Yankee lore.
The Yankees are faced with a seemingly difficult situation but they really have no choice but to resign the icon despite his age and the inevitable in his production, the question is only for how long and how much. Losing Jeter to another franchise would be a public relations disaster, the man has become the Yankees. There is no question Jeter is a great shortstop, there is some question whether his greatness is enhanced by the mere fact that he is Yankee. That is an argument for another time,there is no question however that he has become THE YANKEE to this generation of Yankee fandom. Richard Sandomir‘s excellent piece in the November 9, 2010 New York Times points out that signing Jeter is not just a baseball contract but a branding decision as well as, a concept dear to the Yankee tradition.
Sure Jeter’s on the field production will slip but as a commodity Jeter’s stature will grow. Jeter is close to 3,000 career hits (2,926 as of the end of the 2010 season) as he pursues that hallowed mark fans will flock to the stadium to witness his chase. Further the Yankees really don’t have anyone in their system ready to step in and produce as well as Jeter for the next few years. Eduardo Nunez is considered by Baseball America as one of the teams top 10 prospects but he is only 23. Surely the Yankees would not like to have Nunez start his career off in the Bronx as the kid who succeed the unsigned but still relatively production Jeter. Yes Alex Rodriquez can slide over to short again but he is 35. Ramiro Mendoza is on the roster but he is no more than a 33 year old utility player. Certainly the team can throw a Monopoly money contract at a free agent but really who wants to be known in New York as the guy who forced Jeter out of New York. No one that’s who. Nor is there a really good free agent option available right now. Jeter’s iconic status on and off-field insure that fans will want to see him play regardless of his play on the field.
Jeter too has incentive to stay in New York. The man loves New York and is as close the king of New York as one can get. The endorsement possibilities he commands in the New York market and nationally are tied to his identity as a Yankee for life. Additionally, being enshrined in Cooperstown as a career long Yankee has to have great appeal to the man.
But perhaps the most obvious reason for a new Jeter contract with the Yankees is the teams wealth, they can easily afford to pay the iconic Jeter above his actual on the field and market value because they simply can afford to do so. They can expect and will receive postive feedback from their fans, the press in New York and even the press beyond Gotham. So expect a deal to be done with Jeter and done real quick.
