Orange County Register

In about nine months, somebody will make the final putout of 2010 — it might even be Derek Jeter who does it — and the baseball world will begin obsessing about Jeter’s next contract. A free agent after the season, he’ll almost certainly return to the Yankees, the only tension will be over a few million bucks between a millionaire and a billionaire, but we’ll be rapt. Let’s just get started now, then.

From the New York Post:

“Jeter, who with 2,747 hits has an outside chance at 4,000, will be looking for multiple years. Some believe he should make at least what Alex Rodriguez earns a year ($27.5 million).”

King could means this in one of two ways. He could mean that “some” believe that Jeter is more valuable than Rodriguez, and therefore should, in a perfect world, make more than Rodriguez does. In the same way that “some” believe that Reggie Willits should make at least what Gary Matthews, Jr. earns a year, without actually believing that Willits should get paid $11 million. I would say very few people believe this — the FAN projections show this pretty clearly — but “some” might.

The other way is that “some” believe that when Derek Jeter hits free agency next year, he should get paid at least $27.5 million more per season. Which pretty much limits “some” to “people currently in the employ of Derek Jeter, and perhaps Derek Jeter.”

As great as Jeter is, the Yankees have been saying (and doing) all the right things about getting younger. Jeter will play the first year of his contract at age 37.  His Baseball-Reference comps were mostly out of the game completely by age 39. Getting old sucks.

As great as he is, he’s certainly not best-player-in-baseball great. He’s been worth 14.9 wins above replacement over the past three seasons. Alex Rodriguez has been worth 20 WAR. Matt Holliday, who got $18 million per year, has been worth 20 WAR.

As great as Jeter is, I’d imagine he wants to finish his career a Yankee as much as the Yankees want him to, so he doesn’t have as much leverage as we might imagine. Depending on how his season goes, I’d bet on three years, $60 million.