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Hal Steinbrenner isn’t the only businessman in the room. Sitting across the table is Derek Jeter.
Responding to Steinbrenner’s comments Tuesday that the Yankees want Jeter to remain in pinstripes but there is a business to be run, Jeter’s agent said the shortstop views the upcoming contract negotiations with the same attitude.
And if Jeter approaches business decisions with the single-mindedness he exhibits on the baseball field, these talks between the team and its captain, the face of the franchise and among the all-time Yankees greats, could get crusty.
“While it’s not our intent to negotiate the terms of Derek’s free agent contract in a public forum, we do agree with Hal and Brian’s recent comments that this contract is about business and winning championships,” Jeter’s agent, Casey Close, said, referring to recent comments by Steinbrenner and GM Brian Cashman. “Clearly, baseball is a business, and Derek’s impact on the sport’s most valuable franchise can’t be overstated. Moreover, no athlete embodies the spirit of a champion more than Derek Jeter.”
Has their ever been a bigger game of financial chicken? The market outside The Bronx for Jeter isn’t close to what it is in New York. And Jeter is coming off a career-low .270 batting average. The Yankees’ next best option to play shortstop is untested Eduardo Nunez.
Does anybody really believe Jeter won’t be at shortstop on Opening Day? Yet business could get in the way.
Tuesday, Steinbrenner emphasized he is running the Yankees like any other muscular company.
“He’s one of the greatest Yankees in history, no doubt about it, but at the same time I’m running a business,” Steinbrenner said in a radio interview. “I have responsibilities. Hank and I have to be responsible to our partners so we have to remain somewhat objective.”
Steinbrenner said there is a deal to be done, but it has to work for both parties. Close didn’t get into that aspect of it.
The Yankees plan to reach out to Close and Fernando Cuza, the agent for Mariano Rivera, in the next couple of days. They hold exclusive negotiating rights with the free agents until midnight Saturday. After that, any team can negotiate with Jeter and Rivera.
Jeter made $21 million this past year, the final season of a 10-year, $189 million contract.
It has been assumed that Jeter will have to take a pay cut, but that may not fly with Jeter the businessman. Though money might not be an object to the Yankees, length of the contract may be.
With no other position to play but DH — a position he doesn’t have the power bat to fill, and for which teams don’t pay premium dollars — the Yankees may not be willing to go four years with a shortstop who turns 37 in June.
The Yankees aren’t shy about paying for the past, even if they paid Jeter $18.9 million a year across the last decade. And there are very few Yankees with Jeter’s past.
He has helped them win five World Series titles, is 74 hits shy of 3,000, the all-time franchise hits leader, and a career .314 hitter with an on-base percentage of .385. For all of Alex Rodriguez’s home runs and for all of Rivera’s brilliance, Jeter is the face of the Yankees.
But those accomplishments are part of the game. How much does that translate into the business side of it?
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Gil Patterson will interview with the Yankees’ brass next week at Yankee Stadium for the pitching coach vacancy.
george.king@nypost.com