Dissing Jeter is not a winning strategy, but the Yankees can get away with it because they know that no team is going to make a serious offer for the iconic shortstop.
Which brings us back to John Henry. Suppose the Red Sox step up and shock the world? There is simply no downside to making Jeter a massive offer. In the worst-case scenario he calls your bluff and you get the Yankees captain.
I don’t care if Jeter is way past his prime or if the Sox would have to wildly overpay a player of his diminished skills.
I say offer him the world. Forget about Jayson Werth. Blow Jeter away with dollars and years. At worst this would just mean the Sox would jack up the final price the Yankees must pay. It could be sort of like Mark Teixeira-in-reverse.
And if Jeter actually signed with Boston, the damage to the Yankees’ psyche would be inestimable.
Jeter finishing his career in a Red Sox uniform would be the 2004 American League Championship Series all over again for the hated New Yorkers. Think of how you’d have felt if the Knicks had signed Larry Bird at the end of his career.
The Jeter saga is back-page stuff in the Daily News and the Post just about every day. Jeter wants to be paid like Alex Rodriguez. The Steinbrenners have drawn a line in the Tampa sand. And Gotham is split.
Jeter is 36 and has made more than $205 million during his 15-year Yankees career. He is coming off his worst season, in which he hit .270 and tied for the major league lead in outs made. His on base percentage was .340 and he slugged .370, both career lows. Cashman has admitted the club has concerns with Jeter’s performance and his age. Jeter just completed a 10-year, $189-million deal.
Hal Steinbrenner went on the radio and said that the talks could get “messy.’’ He was right.
