Wallace Matthews of ESPN reports that the Yankees are currently preparing offers for Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Cliff Lee. Matthews’ source tells him that Jeter’s offer will be for three years and between $15-20 million per year.
The Yankees are expected to have a deal done with Jeter before either Rivera or Lee, Matthews reports. If the Yankees do manage to outbid the competition for Lee, the team does not expect that deal to be done until mid-December, after the Winter Meetings. The team is holding off on putting together an offer for Andy Pettitte until he decides that he’s coming back next year.
The $15-20 million figure for Jeter is not too far off from what the pundits had been predicted. A little on the high side if they go $20 million a year, of course. And no matter where it ends up, the deal will be worth way more than Jeter is worth on purely baseball merits. But hey, it’s Jeter. It’s the Yankees. You knew those crazy kids were going to stick together and you knew it was going to be expensive.
Forget it Jake, it’s Yankeetown.