Hal Steinbrenner, one of the Fabulous Boss Brothers, made a radio tour of New York on Tuesday, and one of the things he talked about was Derek Jeter's new contract. Steinbrenner praised Jeter as being one of the greatest Yankees of them all, but then added, "Hank (Steinbrenner) and I need to keep a level head and realize we're running a business here."
Ultimately, he said, he would have to do what was right for the "partnership." Clearly that doesn't mean just handing a blank check over to the captain of the Yankees after he hits .270, a number 45 points lower than his career average.
Clearly with the Yankees, signing aging superstars to ridiculous contracts that take them well past their 40th birthdays went out with, well, with Alex Rodriguez three years ago.
You remember that one, probably the way the Yankee partnership does. Rodriguez had opted out of his Yankee contract during the last game of the World Series. But then before you knew it, level-headed Hank Steinbrenner, only bidding against himself, had signed A-Rod to a brand-new contract that takes him to age 42 and might be worth $300 million in the end.
The Yankees are going to spend money this winter, because they always spend money in the winter, it's just a question of how much. But apparently they're not going to just throw it at Jeter. If they are going to throw $100 million on somebody, they'd much rather do that with Cliff Lee.
Here was Brian Cashman the other day before flying down to Tampa and finding out what his allowance from the Boss Brothers will be this winter:
"I think that if the pitching can be shored up it will be to our best interest."
"Shored up" in this case likely means overpaying Lee, who turns 33 in August, and became the most over-evaluated pitcher in history during the postseason that just ended. When it comes to the Yankees, "shored up" always means throwing big money at somebody else's best pitchers. And going back to 1995, it has put them in the postseason every year except one, so in that sense, it's working for them.
But in the last 10 years - as shored up as they've been - they've won the same amount of World Series as the Angels, Marlins, White Sox, Cardinals, Phillies and San Francisco Giants.
I said to someone in the Yankee organization on Tuesday: "Wait a second: You have to shore up the pitching two years after you signed Sabathia and Burnett for nearly a quarter of a billion?"
The guy said, "Only because we have to."
Two years after Sabathia and Burnett became No. 1 and No. 2 in the Yankee rotation, they apparently need Lee to be their No. 2. He stuffed them twice in the 2009 World Series, stuffed them again in Game 3 of the Yankees-Rangers series, now it's practically the civic duty of Hal, Hank, and Cashman, the cash man, to bring him to the new Yankee Stadium. Even if Lee doesn't look like the world's only unbeatable pitcher anymore, coming out of the postseason of 2010 with a 3-2 record and unable to keep poor old Edgar Renteria in the yard.
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