Teams dealing with aging franchise icons is always a delicate situation, and there is the distinct possibility that it could turn ugly somewhere during the process.
We all saw this happen a few summers ago after Brett Favre retired for the first time after the 2007 season. He eventually waffled and wanted to come back, expecting his starting job to be waiting for him in Green Bay. Unfortunately for him, the Packers had moved on to Aaron Rodgers (a move that has worked out quite well if you ask me) and the Packers weren't going to allow Favre to strong-arm his way back in the fold.
As we all know, things got ugly and eventually resulted in a messy divorce when Favre was traded to the Jets.
Favre wasn't able to realize that his worth to the team maybe wasn't as big as he thought it was. And who could blame him? For years in Green Bay he was told he was a savior; everyone talked up the Legend of Brett Favre. He was irreplaceable, a living legend. So when it seemed the Packers were telling him they didn't need him anymore, it was a confusing thing to hear. How could the Packers turn their backs on a franchise legend?
A similar situation is starting to arise in the Bronx, as the New York Yankees seem to be content in playing hardball with their free agent shortstop and face of the franchise, Derek Jeter.
With Jeter, the Yankees are facing a very similar situation as the Packers did with Favre. Jeter is an aging superstar who may be overvaluing his worth, except in Jeter's case the overvaluing he and his agent are doing is in dollars.
Before the 2001 season Jeter signed a 10-year, $189 million contract with the Yankees, which made him the second highest paid athlete behind only then Texas Rangers shortstop Alex Rodriguez.
This offseason, that contract expired, exposing Jeter to free agency. All season, Jeter's free agency was almost an after thought in some minds. I mean, there is no way Jeter leaves the Yankees, right? He is spoken of as the embodiment of everything that is good about baseball. The quintessential Yankee. An equal among names in Yankee lore like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.
Well, so far, Jeter's free agency is proving to be much more tumultuous than anyone would have expected, and seems to have the possibility of turning ugly
Thus far we have found out that even Derek Jeter can be subject to Yankee hardball, the harsh reality that the the team willing to pay more for somebody else's free agents than their own.
To the Yankees, this is what Jeter is: an aging shortstop that will be 37 next season, whose usefulness in the field has decreased significantly in the past few years (don't let those Gold Gloves fool you) and, who is coming off his worst statistical season at the plate of his career.
So even though Jeter has meant so much to the Yankees over the years, he is looking to match the annual salary of his last contract, and the Yankees know that no one else will pay anywhere near that much for the caliber of player Jeter is right now. So why should they?
Jeter is expecting the Yankees to pay for the ""intangibles,"" the ""total contribution to the franchise"" that Jeter has given the Yankees and that his worth needs to be measured in more than just stats.
In the end that ""total contribution to the franchise"" is the trump card in this type of situation. If the Yankees don't want the PR nightmare of letting a beloved icon walk away, such as the one the Packers had to deal with in the Favre saga, they will pay Jeter what he wants, which will be drastically more than he deserves or what any other team would even consider paying.
Jeter will get paid because he is Derek Jeter and because of how much he means to the New York Yankee franchise. Granted, there will probably be some compromise, but if the salary remains around the same Jeter will be happy and the Yankees can sign him without too much buyers regret. The two sides are still far apart, but there is no reason to believe Jeter's situation with the Yankees will get anywhere near the ugliness of the Favre-Packers fiasco, and that's good news for everyone.
Is Jeter worth it? Send Ryan your thoughts at rmevans2@wisc.edu.
