Davidoff: For once, Jeter's timing is terrible

Derek Jeter's support among Yankees fans has splintered - at least according to my inbox and Twitter account - but among those who stick by the venerable captain, this argument keeps emerging:. If Alex Rodriguez and A.J. Burnett get ridiculously overpaid in Yankees dollars, why shouldn't Jeter?

The answer lies not in the pragmatic but in the cosmic: For the first time in his professional life, Jeter has stumbled upon bad timing.

As the shortstop makes his free-agent debut today, with 15-plus seasons as a Yankee on his resume, he finds himself victimized by a foreboding concurrence of events:

1. 2010 marked his worst full season in the major leagues.

2. The Yankees' American League Championship Series loss to Texas has them anxious to improve the team . . .

3. . . . but not desperate enough from a public-relations standpoint to feel threatened by Jeter's freedom, given that they won the World Series just last year.

At the Yankees' organizational meetings in Tampa this past week, they came to resolutions we all could've determined without eavesdropping: Bring back Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte and sign Cliff Lee.

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And - here's the rub - do all of this without any significant increase in the team's payroll, which began the 2010 season at about $206 million, according to USA Today's calculations.

Take Javier Vazquez's $11.5- million salary and Nick Johnson's $5.75 million, and you're still about $6 million short of what it'll take to land Lee. So you can expect the Yankees to work hard to hold the line on the Core Four trio.

And Jeter most of all, because Pettitte will want only one year if he comes back and Rivera still is great at his job.

Have no doubt that Jeter looks around and sees massive overpays all over the team's opulent clubhouse at new Yankee Stadium. And thinks that he played a significant role in building the soulless airport shopping plaza that serves as the team's home nowadays.

He isn't necessarily wrong. Alas, if we were to conduct a "lucky/unlucky timing" audit on Jeter's playing existence, you can understand why he titled his autobiography "The Life You Imagine."

Consider:

1. He graduated high school in 1992, when the Yankees - his childhood favorite team - held the sixth overall pick, thanks to a 71-91 record in 1991.

2. The first five teams - the Astros, Indians, Expos, Orioles and Reds - passed on Jeter. Houston selected Phil Nevin despite the urging of area scout Hal Newhouser, a Hall of Fame player, to choose Jeter.

3. The Yankees already were on their way back, thanks to the presence of youngsters such as Rivera, Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams in the organization.

4. From the 1992 draft until 1996, when Jeter won the Yankees' starting shortstop job, the team had supplemented its young core with veteran acquisitions such as Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez, David Cone and Jimmy Key.

Jeter did his part to create the dynasty of 1996-2001, obviously, and he helped the Yankees keep making the playoffs in the underappreciated run of 2002-07. If he never played another game, he'd be a slam-dunk Hall of Famer.

Ken Griffey Jr. also is a no-brainer entry to Cooperstown, however, and he never set foot in a World Series.

If the worst professional timing Jeter ever suffers is that he gets overpaid by less than he believes he deserves . . . well, that really isn't too bad. He can just reiterate his greatness as a teammate by sucking it up, looking ahead and stabilizing his fan support with a bounceback 2011 campaign.