Derek Jeter speaking at a ceremony for George Steinbrenner, the team’s longtime principal owner.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ managing general partner, stood in a warm breeze in the portico outside the Waldorf Astoria hotel here Thursday and did his best to project a calm outlook regarding what still has the potential to be a stormy issue for his team.
Mindful that an escalation of rhetoric surrounding the Derek Jeter contract negotiations could create the very messiness that he alluded to earlier in the month, Steinbrenner tried to eliminate any hint of friction between the two sides.
Although back-page headlines have put more of an edge on the talks, Steinbrenner told reporters he was happy with the overall tenor of the negotiations thus far and said it was very important to him and the Yankee organization as a whole that the exchanges with Jeter be civil.
“Absolutely,” he said. “This is a business negotiation. None of us want to make it personal because it’s not personal. Both sides have a lot of respect for each other. My family has a lot of respect for Derek, and I believe it’s a mutual thing. It’s been a good history. We’re going to do our best to keep it that way.”
Actually, it was Steinbrenner who initially raised the prospect that negotiations could get “messy” in a radio interview he gave earlier this month. That prompted Jeter’s agent, Casey Close, to respond that Jeter’s value to the Yankees could not be overstated.
Having concluded a 10-year, $189 million contract, Jeter is now a free agent for the first time in his career. Despite some level of uncertainty and awkwardness about the current talks, there is no indication that he will not re-sign with the Yankees.
Jeter is a classic Yankee whose value to the team goes beyond his on-field performance. But just as the team has benefited from his contributions on and off the field, he, too, has benefited from being a Yankee, a point that Steinbrenner and Randy Levine, the Yankees’ president, have tried to make in recent weeks.
At age 36, Jeter is coming off a season in which his offensive numbers dropped off drastically and his range at shortstop was further called into question, although he did win the 2010 Gold Glove award.
Steinbrenner would not say whether the Yankees had made an offer yet, but they should soon, and it is expected they will propose a three-year deal, giving them room to extend it to four years as talks progress.
“I don’t talk about offers, and I don’t talk about numbers,” Steinbrenner said. “It’s a negotiation, and we’ll keep it that way. Look, we’re talking. That’s the important thing. We’re hearing each other out.”
Steinbrenner also briefly addressed Mariano Rivera, whose situation is very similar to Jeter’s, except that he is coming off another standout season. The Yankees have not yet been told whether Rivera wants a one- or two-year deal.
As for the timing of when he would like to resolve the Jeter situation, Steinbrenner indicated he would like everything concluded by Christmas.
“Would I like to be relaxing Christmas Eve?” he said. “Yes, I’d like to be relaxing Christmas Eve. But it will take as long as it takes. The important thing is that we don’t make it personal, we have a lot of respect for each other, and we keep talking. That’s the deal; we’ve got to keep talking. And we will.”
Steinbrenner spoke just before he left the owners’ meeting, and less than an hour later he was followed by Nolan Ryan, the Rangers’ president, who is in competition with Steinbrenner to sign Texas’ free-agent pitcher, Cliff Lee.
Ryan said he hoped that Lee’s experience in Texas this season, combined with its proximity to Lee’s home in Little Rock, Ark., would be enough to overcome Steinbrenner’s money because, he said, he knew the Rangers could not outbid the Yankees.
“No, you’re not going to,” he said. “If you want to talk about who probably would be positioned to bid the most money, you’d have to go with the Yankees. It’s their history.”
src: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/sports/baseball/19yankees.html?ref=sports
Mindful that an escalation of rhetoric surrounding the Derek Jeter contract negotiations could create the very messiness that he alluded to earlier in the month, Steinbrenner tried to eliminate any hint of friction between the two sides.
Although back-page headlines have put more of an edge on the talks, Steinbrenner told reporters he was happy with the overall tenor of the negotiations thus far and said it was very important to him and the Yankee organization as a whole that the exchanges with Jeter be civil.
“Absolutely,” he said. “This is a business negotiation. None of us want to make it personal because it’s not personal. Both sides have a lot of respect for each other. My family has a lot of respect for Derek, and I believe it’s a mutual thing. It’s been a good history. We’re going to do our best to keep it that way.”
Actually, it was Steinbrenner who initially raised the prospect that negotiations could get “messy” in a radio interview he gave earlier this month. That prompted Jeter’s agent, Casey Close, to respond that Jeter’s value to the Yankees could not be overstated.
Having concluded a 10-year, $189 million contract, Jeter is now a free agent for the first time in his career. Despite some level of uncertainty and awkwardness about the current talks, there is no indication that he will not re-sign with the Yankees.
Jeter is a classic Yankee whose value to the team goes beyond his on-field performance. But just as the team has benefited from his contributions on and off the field, he, too, has benefited from being a Yankee, a point that Steinbrenner and Randy Levine, the Yankees’ president, have tried to make in recent weeks.
At age 36, Jeter is coming off a season in which his offensive numbers dropped off drastically and his range at shortstop was further called into question, although he did win the 2010 Gold Glove award.
Steinbrenner would not say whether the Yankees had made an offer yet, but they should soon, and it is expected they will propose a three-year deal, giving them room to extend it to four years as talks progress.
“I don’t talk about offers, and I don’t talk about numbers,” Steinbrenner said. “It’s a negotiation, and we’ll keep it that way. Look, we’re talking. That’s the important thing. We’re hearing each other out.”
Steinbrenner also briefly addressed Mariano Rivera, whose situation is very similar to Jeter’s, except that he is coming off another standout season. The Yankees have not yet been told whether Rivera wants a one- or two-year deal.
As for the timing of when he would like to resolve the Jeter situation, Steinbrenner indicated he would like everything concluded by Christmas.
“Would I like to be relaxing Christmas Eve?” he said. “Yes, I’d like to be relaxing Christmas Eve. But it will take as long as it takes. The important thing is that we don’t make it personal, we have a lot of respect for each other, and we keep talking. That’s the deal; we’ve got to keep talking. And we will.”
Steinbrenner spoke just before he left the owners’ meeting, and less than an hour later he was followed by Nolan Ryan, the Rangers’ president, who is in competition with Steinbrenner to sign Texas’ free-agent pitcher, Cliff Lee.
Ryan said he hoped that Lee’s experience in Texas this season, combined with its proximity to Lee’s home in Little Rock, Ark., would be enough to overcome Steinbrenner’s money because, he said, he knew the Rangers could not outbid the Yankees.
“No, you’re not going to,” he said. “If you want to talk about who probably would be positioned to bid the most money, you’d have to go with the Yankees. It’s their history.”
src: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/sports/baseball/19yankees.html?ref=sports
