"Not sure how to play this one"
Joel Sherman of the New York post had a terrific piece this morning where he breaks down an under reported and analyzed option for the Yankee-Jeter negotiations. Offering him arbitration and pursuing it to its conclusion should he accept. He writes:
If the Yankees believe Jeter will reject they certainly should offer arbitration because other teams interested in Jeter already have to be chilled about offering an older, declining player huge money on a multi-year deal. And if the Yankees offer arbitration, a team that signs Jeter would lose its first-round draft pick to the Yankees as well.
If the Yankees offered arbitration and Jeter accepted, that would bind the sides for just one year, which would be perfect for the Yankees: covering the period in which he would reach 3,000 hits while limiting their long-term exposure with an aging player.
However, if Jeter actually accepts, the Yankees face peril in how much he could ask for and win in arbitration. Yes, Jeter had his worst season, but a veteran agent said “special qualities of leadership and public appeal” could be argued in arbitration. One NL executive said Jeter would ask for no less than $25 million because “his platform year [2010] was not great, but his resume, fan appeal and career are all great. His length of consistency and special accomplishments are great and — believe me — Casey is not going to shy away from arguing every one of those.”
Joel himself concludes at the end of the article that given Derek’s standing in Yankee lore this is an unlikely conclusion to these negotiations. But coming off a down year (his second down year in the past three) and at his advanced age at his position, its a very attractive alternative. It benefits teams the most to go year to year with players his age, even if you wind up overpaying. Which the Yanks have admitted recently they’re going to do anyway with Derek. The Yanks would have a strong case to an arbiter to maintain his 2010 salary given his on the field production. Even if Sherman’s estimates are correct about Derek asking for 25 mil, I’d rather pay him that for one year than lock into 3-4 years committing to 50-70 mil. If nothing else, having this as a fallback position gives the Yanks leverage in the negotiations. From a PR perspective, I don’t think there would be a huge backlash. Maybe at first the hard core Jeter fans would say he’s being mistreated, given his years of outstanding service and 5 WS championships, but 18-25 mil for one year is not exactly a punishment. If anything, it’s double what his on-field production was worth last year. But the Jeter camp knows this and would in all likelihood decline arbitration, forcing both sides to continue negotiating.
What do you think? Could you see both sides exploring this avenue and how would you react to it?
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7 Responses to Arbitration for Jeter?
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TIQ IQ
I don’t think arbitration is an option. The point is not to beat Jeter, but come to a happy settlement.
Also, arbitration only pushes decision off a year. If you assume the Yanks will have Jeter for career, they might as well sign a longer-term deal off his bad 2010.
Finally, I disagree about the PR backlash. Offering Jeter arbitration will definitely be seen as a slight. Just look at what happened with Torre, and half the base wanted him gone at the time.
I don’t think the Torre analogy applies. Torre left, Derek would still be with the team. There’s nothing but a perceived slight (which I agree there would be) to deal with.
The analogy to Torre was before the fact. With Torre’s one-year deal and the hypotehtical arbitration offer, the Yankees would have offered both a short-term renewal at a generous salary. If Jeter rejected it, like Torre did, the pr fall out would be a nightmare.
I’d completely be on board for this option. If Derek does the arb route twice and make around $20m a year each time, I’d imagine most people would think this was a great result. Imagine the reaction to Jeter signing a 2yr/$40m deal …
That being said, I don’t think Cashman offers arb .. He’s just too gun-shy about this, even when it is an obvious decision (e.g., when Clemens un-retired to go to Houston).
Yes! He’d still be overpaid, but I’m 100%, 200%, 310% on board with going year-to-year with Jeter, even if it means greater salary concerns. At the very least, offering him arbitration would destroy Jeter’s leverage for a multi-year deal.
No other player in baseball is compensated for the myth and legend sprouted out around him. Derek Jeter is going to be vastly overpaid if they offer him a 3 year, 30 million dollar contract, let alone the sums that people are discussing. The Yankees should play much harder ball with him than rumors seem to be suggesting.
Year to year is one thing but you can’t go arbitration every year both sides are going to have hurt feelings tearing each other up in court year after year… If anything you would go with a Tim wakefield sort of 1 year deal with a mutual option every single year so both sides can decide if they want to break up or keep going.
I don’t really see any harm in offering it. I don’t think anyone would fault the team in making the offer. I don’t think Jeter has any real intention of leaving and no one would outbid the Yankees for Jeter anyway so I don’t think it realistically has any impact on his market power. If he were to accept arb and the Yankees came in with the minimum offer and played hard ball, there would be negative press but I don’t think they would do that. I also doubt that he’d accept or I’m not sure they even offer it. I’d bet that both sides don’t want to go through this evey year. Jeter is going to get overpaid and I’m ok with that as long as it doesn’t impact their ability to continue to build a team around him. I’ve also come around to thinking that the length of the contract isn’t as important as we make it out to be either. He’ll get his 3000 hits this year and if he continues to decline, I don’t think he would stick around too long and tarnish his legacy. I really can’t picture a situation where he would keep playing as a role player for multiple years drawing a $20 million salary with continual stories about how his contract is an albatross. My guess is he’d have too much pride for that.