Report: Derek Jeter Wanted Six Years, $150 Million From Yankees

After a week or two of contentious negotiations between Derek Jeter and the Yankees, both presumably in direct contact and through the media, we may have learned why the Yankees’ captain is not signed to play in pinstripes in 2011 just yet.

The New York Daily News reports that “sources close” to the Jeter camp — that would be Jeter and agency Casey Close — say Jeter’s starting point was a six-year, $150 million deal from the Yankees, and that the $25 million per year of that deal is the truly critical figure.

That’s a shade or seven more green than the Yankees have been prepared to shell out. Their three-year, $45 million offer would be dwarfed by even the first two years of Jeter’s reported demand — and it would only keep Jeter under contract until he turns 39 in 2013. A six-year deal would mean that Jeter could be in pinstripes until he is 42 in 2016.

Then there’s the matter of the money: $25 million a year is an astronomical sum, and the contract would be one of the most massive deals in sports history. Currently, that’s “Alex Rodriguez money,” and though it may once have been “Derek Jeter money,” it is unthinkable that Jeter could command that much per year on the open market.

So Jeter wants to be paid, and very, very well, and the Yankees want to pay him, but only very well, and for a shorter period of time than he would like: we knew all that. But the gap between the two parties may be a gulf, and that might mean a longer, uglier negotiation than anyone expected.