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| Bill Walton + Carrot Top = Dan Shaughnessy |
Why not a short stop with Derek Jeter
The Globe’s intrepid Peter Abraham floated the idea in a blog back on Nov. 18.
What if the Red Sox decided to make Derek Jeter a contract offer? Abraham framed his piece in sheer speculation. He was just having a little fun. He wanted to know if Sox fans would tolerate such a notion.
Pete Abraham is a great writer and can be funny as well. He knew the idea of signing Jeter was, as you say Mr. Shaughnessy, just “a little fun”, nothing more.
Mr. Shugnessy, surely you wouldn’t want to actually devote an entire column seriously talking about Jeter joining the Red Sox, would you?
Shaugnessy: I am serious and don’t call me Shirley!
And we build…
In the fortnight since Pete’s preposterous proposal, things have gotten ugly between the Yankees and their captain.
Fortnight, really? You’re right, it was a preposterous proposal, if taken seriously, so why are we still talking about it?
Jeter’s agent, Casey Close, said Jeter is the Yankees’ modern-day Babe Ruth, and general manager Brian Cashman dared Jeter to go find another bidder. ESPN New York is reporting that the Yankees have told Jeter and Close to “drink the reality potion.’’ Last week the New York Post ran a Photoshopped back cover featuring Jeter in a Red Sox uniform next to a headline that read, “Picture this.’’
I always wondered who were the morons that actually enjoyed those dumb photoshopped pictures. I think I now know, Dan Shaughnessy and the other morons who “read” the New York Post.
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.
To paraphrase what you just said without all of the bullshit: The Yankees can’t get away this except for the fact that they can get away with it. Yup!
Which brings us back to John Henry.
To bring someone back you have to have brought them there to begin with. I did a quick check, this is the first time you mention John Henry. This has been a really awful and forced segue, I can’t wait to see what’s next!
Suppose the Red Sox step up and shock the world?
And withdraw your right to cover the team? Fingers crossed!
There is simply no downside to making Jeter a massive offer.
This is easily a finalist for the Dumbest Statement of the Year Award. It would be mildly understandable if you said there is no downside, or the downside is minimal, or the downside is worth it, but stating there is simply no downside to making Jeter a massive offer, is simply unfathomable.
There are in fact many downsides “to making Jeter a massive offer”:
1. Jeter is 37 years old
2. The Red Sox already have a capable shortstop
3. The Red Sox don’t have any room for Jeter at 2nd or DH and anyone who fields a 1b or 3b with his production is shooting themselves in the foot
4. A “massive offer” would pay Jeter $125 Million for 5 years
If you were, however, to say that there is simply no downside to never reading a Dan Shaugnessy column ever again, you would be correct.
In the worst-case scenario he calls your bluff and you get the Yankees captain.
The worst-case scenario is that a 42 year-old Jeter is being paid $25M while he handcuffs the entire Boston Red Sox front office. Instead of keeping Adrian Beltre or signing Carl Crawford or Jayson Werth, the Red Sox get Derek Jeter. Instead of resigning Kevin Youklis and Dustin Pedroia when their team friendly contracts run out the Red Sox have to pay a 42 year-old Jeter $25 Million.
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.
You are admitting that Jeter is not only past his prime, but way past it with diminished skills yet the Red sox should still overpay for him?
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.
If you look a few inches above you will see the following quote: “in the worst-case scenario he calls your bluff and you get the Yankees captain.” Now, “at worst this would just mean the Sox would jack up the final price the Yankees must pay.”
I thought we already went through this, at worst Derek Jeter becomes the worst contract in the history of baseball ruining the Red Sox current and future teams.
It could be sort of like Mark Teixeira-in-reverse.
In the 2008 offseason the Red Sox almost locked up Mark Teixeira on an 8 year $168 Million deal until the Yankees came in at the last second signing Teixeira for an extra $12 Million.
In this hypothetical scenario, the Yankees are offering Derek Jeter a 3 year $45 Million deal when the Red Sox sweep in to sign Jeter for 5 years at $125 Million for a difference of $80 Million. This is simple math: $80 Million > $45 Million, this is not Mark Teixeira-in-reverse.
Oh and just for some shits and gigs, Mark Teixeira was 29 years old coming off of great season: .308/.410/.552, 33 homers, 121 RBI, 7.3 bWAR. Derek Jeter is 37 years old coming off of the worst season of his career: .270/.340/.370, 10 homers, 67 RBI, 2.3 bWAR. Again, this is not “sort of like Mark Teixeira-in-reverse”, it’s more like a dumb pipedream from a bad writer.
And if Jeter actually signed with Boston, the damage to the Yankees’ psyche would be inestimable.
The Yankees’ and their fans collective psyche only cares about one thing more than winning and it’s not Derek Jeter, it’s the Red Sox losing. If the Red Sox were to sign Jeter to a deal of the magnitude that Shaugnessy states they should, the Red Sox would lose and by my estimation the Yankees’ psyche would not be damaged.
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.
Jeter finishing his career in a Red Sox uniform would be more analogous to Brett Favre ending his career on the Vikings on an embarrassing note on a losing team. Hey! Wait a minute, this doesn’t seem like a bad idea!
Think of how you’d have felt if the Knicks had signed Larry Bird at the end of his career.
Larry Bird retired before he entered his real decline phase as injuries were starting to take its toll. If the Knicks signed Larry Bird to a 5 year deal, paying him until he was 40, then I don’t think I’d be too happy about it.
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.
That paragraph stinks.
The Yankees have offered Jeter $45 million over three years. At that rate, Jeter would be making more than $3 million per year more than any big league shortstop. The Daily News reported that Jeter’s initial request was for six years and $150 million. Close said the report was untrue. Now the Daily News and the Times are reporting that Jeter wants 4-5 years in the $23-million to $24-million per range. Rodriguez is going into the fourth year of a 10-year, $275-million deal and Jeter wants to remind everybody that he’s the stand-up captain who never choked and never cheated.
Woah. Arod got $275 Million and he’s a cheater and choker, who knows how much Jeter will get! If Jeter never choked, then explain to me why he was 10/40 with 2 walks and 2 RBI and a paltry .661 OPS in this last postseason. If Jeter never cheated then what was the hoopla about his faux hit-by-pitch?
Jeter can’t possibly spend all this dough, but athletes equate money with respect (remember Pedro Martinez?) and Jeter wants to feel some love at the end of his Hall of Fame career.
In the worst-case scenario he calls your bluff and you get the Yankees captain.
The worst-case scenario is that a 42 year-old Jeter is being paid $25M while he handcuffs the entire Boston Red Sox front office. Instead of keeping Adrian Beltre or signing Carl Crawford or Jayson Werth, the Red Sox get Derek Jeter. Instead of resigning Kevin Youklis and Dustin Pedroia when their team friendly contracts run out the Red Sox have to pay a 42 year-old Jeter $25 Million.
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.
You are admitting that Jeter is not only past his prime, but way past it with diminished skills yet the Red sox should still overpay for him?
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.
If you look a few inches above you will see the following quote: “in the worst-case scenario he calls your bluff and you get the Yankees captain.” Now, “at worst this would just mean the Sox would jack up the final price the Yankees must pay.”
I thought we already went through this, at worst Derek Jeter becomes the worst contract in the history of baseball ruining the Red Sox current and future teams.
It could be sort of like Mark Teixeira-in-reverse.
In the 2008 offseason the Red Sox almost locked up Mark Teixeira on an 8 year $168 Million deal until the Yankees came in at the last second signing Teixeira for an extra $12 Million.
In this hypothetical scenario, the Yankees are offering Derek Jeter a 3 year $45 Million deal when the Red Sox sweep in to sign Jeter for 5 years at $125 Million for a difference of $80 Million. This is simple math: $80 Million > $45 Million, this is not Mark Teixeira-in-reverse.
Oh and just for some shits and gigs, Mark Teixeira was 29 years old coming off of great season: .308/.410/.552, 33 homers, 121 RBI, 7.3 bWAR. Derek Jeter is 37 years old coming off of the worst season of his career: .270/.340/.370, 10 homers, 67 RBI, 2.3 bWAR. Again, this is not “sort of like Mark Teixeira-in-reverse”, it’s more like a dumb pipedream from a bad writer.
And if Jeter actually signed with Boston, the damage to the Yankees’ psyche would be inestimable.
The Yankees’ and their fans collective psyche only cares about one thing more than winning and it’s not Derek Jeter, it’s the Red Sox losing. If the Red Sox were to sign Jeter to a deal of the magnitude that Shaugnessy states they should, the Red Sox would lose and by my estimation the Yankees’ psyche would not be damaged.
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.
Jeter finishing his career in a Red Sox uniform would be more analogous to Brett Favre ending his career on the Vikings on an embarrassing note on a losing team. Hey! Wait a minute, this doesn’t seem like a bad idea!
Think of how you’d have felt if the Knicks had signed Larry Bird at the end of his career.
Larry Bird retired before he entered his real decline phase as injuries were starting to take its toll. If the Knicks signed Larry Bird to a 5 year deal, paying him until he was 40, then I don’t think I’d be too happy about it.
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.
That paragraph stinks.
The Yankees have offered Jeter $45 million over three years. At that rate, Jeter would be making more than $3 million per year more than any big league shortstop. The Daily News reported that Jeter’s initial request was for six years and $150 million. Close said the report was untrue. Now the Daily News and the Times are reporting that Jeter wants 4-5 years in the $23-million to $24-million per range. Rodriguez is going into the fourth year of a 10-year, $275-million deal and Jeter wants to remind everybody that he’s the stand-up captain who never choked and never cheated.
Woah. Arod got $275 Million and he’s a cheater and choker, who knows how much Jeter will get! If Jeter never choked, then explain to me why he was 10/40 with 2 walks and 2 RBI and a paltry .661 OPS in this last postseason. If Jeter never cheated then what was the hoopla about his faux hit-by-pitch?
Jeter can’t possibly spend all this dough, but athletes equate money with respect (remember Pedro Martinez?) and Jeter wants to feel some love at the end of his Hall of Fame career.
I thought he was a stand-up captain (who has proven to NEVER choke and NEVER cheat), now he just wants money?
Any way you cut the figures, there’s a big gap here. The team is offering $15 million per year while the player wants at least $23 million per year. And more years.
I just love when “columnists” have such wonderful short sentences like “And more years”, or “And Gotham is split.” And you wonder why newspapers are dying?
This is where the Red Sox step in.
What’s the harm in offering Jeter $20 million a year over three years? If you can pay J.D. Drew $14 million per year . . . if you can pay a Japanese team $50 million just for the right to speak with Daisuke Matsuzaka . . . if you can buy a futbol club for $476 million, why not spend $60 million to bust pinstripe chops for all the ages?
Any way you cut the figures, there’s a big gap here. The team is offering $15 million per year while the player wants at least $23 million per year. And more years.
I just love when “columnists” have such wonderful short sentences like “And more years”, or “And Gotham is split.” And you wonder why newspapers are dying?
This is where the Red Sox step in.
What’s the harm in offering Jeter $20 million a year over three years? If you can pay J.D. Drew $14 million per year . . . if you can pay a Japanese team $50 million just for the right to speak with Daisuke Matsuzaka . . . if you can buy a futbol club for $476 million, why not spend $60 million to bust pinstripe chops for all the ages?
The Yankees can give Derek Jeter a $400 Million contract but that would be stupid, so they are not doing it. Avoiding mistakes is a smart thing. Spending money just because you can is a stupid thing. The Red Sox, you know, tend not to do stupid things, like signing Derek Jeter. And Just because the Red Sox over valued Daisuke Matsuzaka doesn’t mean they should over value Derek Jeter.
Jeter is closing in on 3,000 hits. Imagine if he gets his 3,000th hit as a Red Sox . . . at Fenway . . . against Mariano Rivera?
Until now I thought it was a bad idea for the Red Sox to sign Jeter, but this last point has me coming around. I know the chances may be miniscule (like 0.000000000000000001%), but I think it’s worth it for the Red Sox to flush millions of dollars down the train to have Derek Jeter get his 3,000th hit against Mariano Rivera. Baseball would be better if front offices replaced boring things statistics, data and logic for remote chances at really cool events!
Since we are pretty certain Adrian Beltre is gone, the Red Sox have a big hole at third base. Jeter could play third. Or you could trade Marco Scutaro and put Jeter at short.
Or you could just move Kevin Youklis to 3rd and for the money you’d use to sign Derek Jeter, sign Adrian Gonzalez or Prince Fielder to play 1b next year. Or better yet, you can just sign Adrian Beltre who will be the same price and is younger, better and plays a position of need!
This certainly would make the Sox less boring. In an era in which NESN ratings are routinely beaten by reruns of “Everybody Loves Raymond,’’ Derek Jeter could make the network more interesting.
With that logic, why is Milton Bradley routinely switching teams? He is certainly interesting and would make the Red Sox less boring.
Stir it up, Sox. Take a chance. Make Derek Jeter an offer he can’t refuse.
Does anyone actually enjoy this?
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