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| Enjoy your award Mr. Hamilton, but I'll be taking the headlines back, thank you. |
Robinson Cano, Jose Bautista Evan Longoria, Paul Konerko, Adrian Beltre and Miguel Cabrera (in no particular order) all had great seasons, but Hamilton was definitely deserving of the award. Any way you want to slice it a .359/.411/.633 line is impressive, whether or not Hamilton missed most of September.
Unfortunately for Hamilton he was only deserving of the headlines for a day, as the Yankees contract negotiations with Jeter (and Mariano now too) have now taken over.
No rumor that you hear on the internet, TV, or if you still listen to it, the radio, is for certain but there is a strong sense that the Yankees offered Derek Jeter a 3 year deal worth $45M and Mariano Rivera a one year deal with an increase on his previous yearly salary to $18M. Meanwhile the Jeter camp wants either more money or more years (likely both) and Mariano wants another year added on.
As of now, the Yankees have not changed their stance and have told Jeter to test the market if he thinks he will get a better deal. Yankee fans and Jeter lovers may prefer for the Yankees to handle their legends with a little better care (and they may have a legitimate gripe), but there is absolutely no chance that if Jeter shops around that he'll receive an extra year or an increase on the $45M from another team. There is a better chance that Mariano can receive a second year but think about it for a second, if you are team trying to rebuild your bullpen, are you going to give $18M to Mariano for two years or sign Rafael Soriano, J.J. Putz and Koji Uehara? For the price of Mariano another team (Yankees included) could sign 3 good relievers with one being an ace closer. I wouldn't suggest that the Yankees are wrong to prefer Mariano to a package like that, but there isn't a single team in the league that would benefit more from having Mariano than Soriano plus 2 above average relievers.
The Yankees, if you will, are playing hardball and as much as it may seem that they "owe" Jeter or Mo something they're smart to do this. Just because the Yankees were silly to sign Arod until he was in his 40s doesn't mean the Yankees should compound their mistake and pay Jeter in a similar fashion. If the Yankees offered Arod a reasonable deal and told him to shop it around, there is no chance that another team would hand over upwards of $275M for his services. If that irritates Jeter than so be it, what other choice does he have? All of the teams that can afford Jeter already have a capable shortstop and wouldn't be able to justify spending $45M on Jeter, let alone an increase on that since he'd need reason to sign elsewhere.
In the end we know Jeter and Mariano will sign with the Yankees. I'm not sure when "the end" will occur but it will happen and there will be a press conference with Jeter saying how glad he is to finish his career with the Yankees. They'll rejoin the Yankees for a price lower than they'd like with likely a slight increase on what is currently on the table to save some face and come August, when the Yankees are in the middle of a pennant race and Jeter is on his way to his 3,000th hit, all this posturing will be forgotten.
I started this post somewhat complaining that Jeter was stealing the headlines from the MVP and then I proceeded to talk at length about the contract situations with hardly a mention about Josh Hamilton. Well I'm sorry Josh, you deserve better so consider your next Ginger Ale on me.
Unfortunately for Hamilton he was only deserving of the headlines for a day, as the Yankees contract negotiations with Jeter (and Mariano now too) have now taken over.
No rumor that you hear on the internet, TV, or if you still listen to it, the radio, is for certain but there is a strong sense that the Yankees offered Derek Jeter a 3 year deal worth $45M and Mariano Rivera a one year deal with an increase on his previous yearly salary to $18M. Meanwhile the Jeter camp wants either more money or more years (likely both) and Mariano wants another year added on.
As of now, the Yankees have not changed their stance and have told Jeter to test the market if he thinks he will get a better deal. Yankee fans and Jeter lovers may prefer for the Yankees to handle their legends with a little better care (and they may have a legitimate gripe), but there is absolutely no chance that if Jeter shops around that he'll receive an extra year or an increase on the $45M from another team. There is a better chance that Mariano can receive a second year but think about it for a second, if you are team trying to rebuild your bullpen, are you going to give $18M to Mariano for two years or sign Rafael Soriano, J.J. Putz and Koji Uehara? For the price of Mariano another team (Yankees included) could sign 3 good relievers with one being an ace closer. I wouldn't suggest that the Yankees are wrong to prefer Mariano to a package like that, but there isn't a single team in the league that would benefit more from having Mariano than Soriano plus 2 above average relievers.
The Yankees, if you will, are playing hardball and as much as it may seem that they "owe" Jeter or Mo something they're smart to do this. Just because the Yankees were silly to sign Arod until he was in his 40s doesn't mean the Yankees should compound their mistake and pay Jeter in a similar fashion. If the Yankees offered Arod a reasonable deal and told him to shop it around, there is no chance that another team would hand over upwards of $275M for his services. If that irritates Jeter than so be it, what other choice does he have? All of the teams that can afford Jeter already have a capable shortstop and wouldn't be able to justify spending $45M on Jeter, let alone an increase on that since he'd need reason to sign elsewhere.
In the end we know Jeter and Mariano will sign with the Yankees. I'm not sure when "the end" will occur but it will happen and there will be a press conference with Jeter saying how glad he is to finish his career with the Yankees. They'll rejoin the Yankees for a price lower than they'd like with likely a slight increase on what is currently on the table to save some face and come August, when the Yankees are in the middle of a pennant race and Jeter is on his way to his 3,000th hit, all this posturing will be forgotten.
I started this post somewhat complaining that Jeter was stealing the headlines from the MVP and then I proceeded to talk at length about the contract situations with hardly a mention about Josh Hamilton. Well I'm sorry Josh, you deserve better so consider your next Ginger Ale on me.
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