The Yankees got further house-cleaning out of the way last night, all of which clears space on the negotiating table to get down to serious business on the Derek Jeter front.
The Yankees and arbitration-eligible catcher Jorge Posada reached agreement last night on a one-year, $4,050,000 contract and avoided arbitration with swingman Ramiro Mendoza by signing him to a one-year, $1.6 million deal.
They also were hammering out the final details of a one-year contract agreement with left-handed-hitting free-agent slugger Henry Rodriguez, who finished last season with the Marlins. The deal, which is expected to bring Rodriguez in the neighborhood of $1 million plus a modest incentive package, is contingent upon him passing a physical, which might not happen until next week.
Rodriguez provides depth in left field, where the Yankees have David Justice and Shane Spencer, and at designated hitter, where Justice will be used when he isn’t in left and where Glenallen Hill will get some at-bats.
Rodriguez, suited for a role similar to the one Darryl Strawberry played for the Yankees, split last season between the Cubs and Marlins. He batted .259 with 20 homers, 61 RBIs, and 98 strikeouts in 363 at-bats.
Meanwhile, the Yankees have been working on locking up a bigger fish than H-Rod.
The Bombers are hoping to sign shortstop Derek Jeter to a long-term contract extension before ballclubs and players exchange salary-arbitration figures tomorrow, which makes that something of an artificial negotiating deadline.
A year ago on the day salary arbitration figures were exchanged, the Yankees and Jeter reached tentative agreement on a seven-year, $118.5 million contract that needed only George Steinbrenner’s approval to go into effect.
At the time The Boss was waiting for Juan Gonzalez to sign the eight-year, $143 million contract the Tigers were offering, but when that deal failed to go through Steinbrenner refused to OK the Jeter contract because he didn’t want to be the owner to have the game’s highest-paid player. So Jeter played the 2000 season on a one-year, $10 million contract.
The market, as always, has soared in the past year, though Jeter isn’t expected to ask for anything close to the 10-year, $252 million contract free agent shortstop Alex Rodriguez landed from the Rangers.