Cashman: Jeter, Mo & Girardi In Same Contract Boat
Via George King -
When Brian Cashman looks at Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Joe Girardi, the Yankees’ GM paints his shortstop, closer and manager with the same brush.
And with spring training opening next week in Tampa, Cashman has no plans to stray from his plan of not negotiating with them. All three contracts are in the final year.
“I don’t think you can separate one from the other,” Cashman explained. “I am not saying they are the same, but the questions will come, ‘If you did one, why didn’t you do the other?’ If this was Kansas City, it would be different — but it’s not.”
Remember, Joe Torre wanted a two-year deal in order to keep the media off the players about his job status. When he didn’t get it, Torre turned down a one-year offer following the 2007 season. Girardi was hired for three years and $7.5 million.
“It doesn’t make any difference,” Cashman said. “[The media] brought his job [security] up when he had two years left on the contract in [2008]. It doesn’t matter. You can have a contract for 10 years and it doesn’t matter.”
According to Fernando Cuza, Rivera’s agent, his client hasn’t pushed him to talk to the Yankees about an extension. Casey Close, Jeter’s representative, didn’t return a call. However, it’s not like Jeter to push the issue.
“Everybody signed those contracts and there is a lot of money being made and people are comfortable,” said Cashman, who is signed through 2011 and never lobbied for an extension when he was in the final year of a deal.
Something tells me that we’ll be hearing about Jeter’s contractual status a lot this season…and the Yankees are fooling themselves if they think they can just table this until the end of the year and not have to answer questions about it.
I think we will be hearing a lot about it too – but it really sucks that we have to. Let’s be honest – Jeter will be taken care of, whether we overpay his true market value or not. The REAL questions will come if Jeter has an extended slump at anytime this year, or his defense regresses after his great season last year. Then we will hear everyday about it. But I guess if he has another stellar season, we could hear about it too. So I went full circle. You’re right – this is never going away.
It’s The Yankees..everything pertaining to these guys is reported. Not looking forward to the day that Jeter’s bowels are dicussed openly on blogs/sites
It’s no big deal guys. We heard all last year about how much money the Yankees spent, how much of a joke their new home-run-friendly ballpark is, how CC and A-Rod can’t win the big ones or perform in the playoffs, etc. There’s always something in Yankeeland that’s played to death and we never hear the end of it.
We best be gettin’ used to it.
I really don’t understand why the Yanks don’t negotiate early when it makes sense. Last time, they wound up paying more and going longer than they wanted to w/ both Mo and Jorge, and they ticked them both off, esp Mo. (I would’ve re-signed Mo just for past performance.)
It’s a dumb to paint everyone w/ the same brush when they don’t have to.
And, unless Jeter suffers some career ending injury, the Yanks better re-sign Jeter if they want to keep me as a fan.
The Yanks don’t have to say anything about any of them.
“No comment”.
Period.
Endit.
Well, if anyone can play the “I’m only going to answer this once” card, and get away with it in New York, it’s Jeter – ’cause he’s already done that once before…
redbug wrote:
this is something the yankees have done for a long time. u can bend the rules for 2 or 3 guys. then everyone is going to expect it. theyll resign jeter and mo and girardi wont take long. mo and jeter dont want to play anywhere and i highly doubt girardi wouldnt do anything to stay here