Jeter's agent says $150M figure 'inaccurate'

In Derek Jeter's only public comments this offseason, the Yankees' captain said he hoped his free agency would be a quick one. That was two weeks ago.

If Jeter was sick of answering questions about his future from people on the street then, as he said he was, he must be downright miserable now. Because in the past week, the growing tension in the negotiations between Jeter and the Yankees has boiled out in public, and the end doesn't seem near.

Though the tenor can change at any moment, the two sides are locked in the age-old game of negotiating chicken: Which side is going to give in significantly on its demands first?

Jeter's agent, Casey Close, broke his silence Friday, but it wasn't to address Brian Cashman's recent comments in which he all but dared the Jeter camp to find a better offer on the open market.

Instead, Close chose to deny a published report that referred to Jeter's initial asking price from the Yankees as $150 million over six years. Earlier in the day, another person familiar with the negotiations told Newsday that the overall figure is less than that.

As the reported $150-million figure made waves on radio and the Internet on Friday, Close told Newsday via e-mail, "The recently-rumored terms of our contract proposal are simply inaccurate." He declined to say what his original asking price was.

The Yankees are believed to have started negotiations with Jeter by offering him a three-year contract worth $45 million. The sides have since exchanged proposals but still are far apart.

The Yankees, however, clearly believe their offer is competitive, based on Cashman's surprising tactic of saying that Jeter, as a free agent, can shop it around to other suitors.

Cashman doesn't typically address negotiations, especially with his own players, but he spoke out in part because he was bothered that Close called the Yankees' negotiating strategy "baffling" in a published report last weekend.

The two sides had agreed early on that they would not negotiate publicly, but each side has admitted at various times to being bothered by what the other has had to say in media reports.

Cashman declined to comment Friday.

In his rare comments this offseason, Close has made a point of referencing Jeter's estimated value to the Yankees beyond his play on the field. Earlier this month, Close told AOL Fanhouse, "Derek's impact on the sport's most valuable franchise cannot be overstated."

But putting that impact in financial terms that both sides can agree on has been more difficult than perhaps everyone originally thought.

The Yankees consistently have referred to the Jeter negotiations as a "baseball deal," in which case the player in question is a 36-year-old shortstop who happens to be coming off the worst offensive season of his career.

That's why the annual salary in the Yankees' first offer - about $15 million - is a significant pay cut for Jeter, who is coming off a 10-year, $189-million contract.

Jeter signed that contract - then the second largest in baseball history - when he was 26 and was coming off a season in which he hit .339 with an .896 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage). But last season, he hit .270 with a .710 OPS, and both are career lows for the lifetime Yankee.