Boss Says Jeter's Pact No Done Deal
Newsday, January 20, 2000
By Lawrence Rocca
The only interests that consume George Steinbrenner nearly as much as winning are those of money and authority, specifically his own. Yesterday, The Boss sent that message raining down on the parade trailing Derek Jeter's tentative $118.5-million contract.
In a one-line statement released through club publicist Rick Cerrone, Steinbrenner emphasized the "tentative" aspect of the agreement, saying: "There's no deal." Steinbrenner didn't add the word "yet," although indications are that he is inclined to authorize the contract once he meets sometime in the next week with Jeter, who must pass a physical required by the prospective insurers of the contract.
However, one Yankees official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Steinbrenner's concern for how Jeter's record-setting contract would impact the team's payroll this year and in future years is very real and should not be ignored.
"It's not an insignificant issue," the official said. "This is not just a rubber-stamp situation." Specifically, Jeter's deal, worth nearly $17 million per season, could seriously impact the Yankees' relationship with closer Mariano Rivera, who seems destined to take the club to arbitration this year. It also could lead directly to the Yankees trading Bernie Williams following the upcoming season.
Rivera's agent, Jim Bronner, beat the Yankees for $4.25 million in arbitration last year and this year filed for a $9.25-million salary. The Yankees, who filed for $7.2 million, would like to avoid a hearing with baseball's best closer and sign him to a multiyear deal if possible.
But thus far, the sides are extremely far apart, so far apart they might not even be able to settle on a one-year deal. Bronner began talks by asking for a four-year contract worth about $45 million. The Yankees don't want to give Rivera more than $36 million over four years, a contract that would still make him baseball's highest-paid closer. San Diego's Trevor Hoffman currently holds that distinction with a four-year, $32-million contract.
If the Yankees were to compromise and give Rivera a four-year deal worth $40 million, they would have nearly $39 million committed for each of the next four seasons to three players: Rivera, Jeter and Williams ($12 million per season).
Because the Yankees have found great success in recent years by distributing money fairly evenly over their entire roster rather than by committing the bulk of their payroll to a few players and because there promises to be several marquee players available next season and offseason, the Yankees are determined to maintain payroll flexibility when and if players such as Chipper Jones, Alex Rodriguez, Mike Hampton and Mike Mussina become available.
The Yankees could do that by going year-to-year with Rivera, which also would give them the benefit of seeing how his arm holds up over the next two seasons, or by trading Williams, who almost surely would have been traded following the 2000 season had the Yankees been successful in their attempts to trade for Shawn Green.
Either way, it seems like the one current Yankee destined to stay for years is Jeter. That is, if Steinbrenner gives his deal his blessing. People around baseball think he'd be foolish not to since the price tag on Jeter can only get higher.
"It's a great contract," an agent said. "He's the identity of their team for the next seven years. For the player, it gives him financial security for the next 10 generations and then he gets to be a free agent. For one human being to make $118 million and then be a free agent at 32, how can you turn that down?" It's not up to Jeter at this point.