New Jeter deal taking longer than expected

The New York Yankees packed up from Orlando, gave a coquettish wave to Cliff Lee’s(notes) agent, returned to their billion-dollar office building and mumbled something about “modest” ticket-price increases (rich folks have a habit of describing $25 – or any amount of money they’re not paying – as “modest”).

So I’m wondering how the Derek Jeter(notes) negotiations turned, I don’t know, edgy?

Well into November, shouldn’t singing angels have fluttered from the heavens to deliver the Jeter contract by now?

More than a week has passed since a delegation of Yankees visited Jeter and his agent, Casey Close, in Tampa to initiate negotiations. What we’ve gotten since is a lot of quiet time, specked with the kind of touchy byplay you might have expected at the Michael Jackson will reading.

Speculation – if you believe in that sort of thing – has been all over the map. Club sources have been especially diligent. Here, after only a week, seem to be the extremes, according to reports: Jeter could be demanding more than $100 million over six years, and the Yankees could be offering as little as $45 million over three years.

The truth almost certainly lies somewhere in between, and there’s a lot of in between there. In fact, you could put Jersey in between and still have room for a situational lefty.

On one side, you have an organizational icon. Not just any organization, but the Yankees. And not just any icon, but DiMaggio dressed as a shortstop.

On the other, you have a franchise that does only one thing better than play baseball, and that’s print money.

A little bit of history: As his contract was expiring, Jeter, 36, watched his franchise pay Alex Rodriguez(notes), Mariano Rivera(notes) and Jorge Posada(notes) into their 40’s.

And, as Jeter’s contract was running out, the Yankees watched their franchise player slog through the worst offensive season of his career.

So, everybody stared at that for a while, considered the consequences, then listened as the more temperate of the Steinbrenner boys – Hal – reminded the men and women of Gotham, “I’m running a business here,” and allowed for the potential this could all get a little “messy.”

Close responded by agreeing the Yankees were a business – the implication being the business would not have been nearly as profitable without his client, nor would it be moving forward. The man does supply his share of seats and T-shirts and YES viewers, regardless of his on-base percentage on that particular day.

That’s what the baseball players, Jeter especially, do. The Yankees, Close believed, were arguing his point exactly. Beyond that, it might be discouraging to Jeter the Yankees were so quick to negotiate off the flattest of his 15 full seasons, and how willing they were to believe in that season over the others.

Since then, the Yankees have seemingly suggested Jeter is trading on his name, rather than his game, or whatever might be left of it. Out of respect for him – the manner in which he has conducted himself, the championships he’s won, the order he’s kept in their clubhouse, the Hall of Fame he’ll one day occupy – they’ve not blurted it out.

But, they’ve come darned close.

“It’s a player negotiation,” team president Randy Levine told reporters in Orlando on Wednesday. “Everything he is and who he is gets factored in. But …”

And here is where it gets interesting …

“… this isn’t a licensing deal or a commercial rights deal. He’s a baseball player. But, with that said, …”

And here comes the backpedal …

“… you can’t take away from who he is. He brings a lot to the organization and we bring a lot to him.”

It was Levine who earlier reminded folks, “Now is a different negotiation than 10 years ago.”

Sounds like a Jersey-sized rift, no? At least Delaware.

Meantime, ESPN.com hustled up a source “close to the Steinbrenners for years” (I’m guessing it’s not the nanny) who huffed, “This thing should have been settled by now, only Jeter’s ego is getting in the way.”

Funny, nobody close to the Steinbrenners ever had a problem with Jeter’s ego before. Conversely, the most common praise for Jeter has always included the point that he had none.

For most of a generation, Jeter, their captain, has been the standard of dignity. On those occasions when the organization went sideways, Jeter did not go with it. He showed up, stood out at shortstop, got his 200 hits, trudged toward Cooperstown and refused to be carried away by those getting carried away.

We all know that. I don’t know what that’s worth in 2011 dollars, or dollars through 2012, 2013 or 2014. And I don’t know if Jeter has reached the place in his career where steady decline is inevitable. I do know he was third in MVP balloting in 2009, and his statistics that year were nearly identical to those in 2000, after which he received a promise for $189 million. And I do know it’s a funny time for the Yankees to be talking out of the sides of their mouths about financial flexibility, drawing the line not at A.J. Burnett(notes) or Kei Igawa(notes) or Carl Pavano(notes) or Jaret Wright or Kyle Farnsworth(notes) or Alex Rodriguez, but at Jeter. And not at a $215-million payroll, but a $210-million payroll, or however that might work out over the next four or five years.

Maybe the best thing about all this is it won’t have the slightest influence next season on Jeter or the Yankees, because Jeter wouldn’t allow it. The Yankees can lobby all they want – publicly or privately – about Jeter’s worth, about the direction of his game, about what a contract might mean in three or four or five years, about their budget, and then he’ll show up in April and be who he is. Maybe the Yankees are taking advantage of that, and maybe that’s Jeter’s plight.

Hal Steinbrenner says it’s not personal, and perhaps that is true. But, if he’s not careful here – looking out over the next few decades – he might have his very own Yogi Berra to bear.

Presumably, Jeter will be a Yankee forever. It can’t work out any other way. But, I was expecting something, I don’t know, nicer. Those angels sure are taking their time.