DAILY NEWS - In the middle of contentious contract negotiations with Derek Jeter in 2010, Yankee GM Brian Cashman told the pinstriped icon that he would prefer to have Troy Tulowitzki playing shortstop the next season, according to a new Sports Illustrated profile of Cashman.
The story, written by S.L. Price, says that in one of their final face-to-face meetings, Jeter asked the GM, “Who would you rather have playing shortstop this year than me?”
Cashman replied, “Do you really want me to answer that?” Given the go-ahead, Cashman named Tulowitzki, then a star with the Colorado Rockies, and was prepared to rattle off a list of others, the story said. Cashman also added, “We’re not paying extra money for popularity. We’re paying for performance.”
The moment was defused and the two sides eventually agreed on a three-year deal worth $51 million. Cashman also calls Jeter “the greatest player I will have ever had,” in the story.
But the profile also says that Cashman was impatient with what Price writes were Jeter’s “diva-like tendencies” and the GM enjoyed being “one of the few to tell the Captain no.”
Reached by phone Wednesday, Cashman said of the Tulo anecdote: “I didn’t provide the information. I didn’t confirm it or deny it. He (Price) asked me about it. I said it was a private meeting." But, Cashman also added, “If players ask me questions, I’ll answer directly and honestly.”
Asked about the “diva-like tendencies” — Price’s words, not Cashman’s — Cashman said, “I didn’t say he had diva-like tendencies. It’s a piece he wrote. He put it together. You’d have to ask him about that. There’s no quotes about that from me.”
There are going to be a lot of Yankee fans who look at this as blasphemy because Jeter is a Deity and Cashman is the uninspired GM who's only sustained a career because of a vast amount of resources. But this is exactly how general managers operate. When Derek Jeter got to the negotiating table he was dealing with both Cashman and ownership. The Yankees were trying to hash out a deal that made sense from both a baseball perspective and a business perspective. Cashman handles the baseball side of things. He isn't worried about selling t-shirts. Cashman is fighting for every dollar he can save because of the proverbial line in the sand that the Steinbrenners are not willing to cross when it comes to payroll. Every dollar in Jeter's pocket means fewer funds to allocate across the rest of the team. His job is to put the best team on the field possible.
Obviously Derek Jeter is prideful guy and up until his final playing days was a tremendous competitor. I'm sure it was important to him to feel as if his on-field worth was that of $17 million a year player. So he challenged Cashman at the table and he told him like it was. But not a single tear ought to be shed for Derek Jeter. They inked him to a 3-year, $51 million deal and picked up his $12 million option at age 39 a year after he missed basically the entire season. The Yankees have been great to him as he's been great for them. Sometimes things get hairy behind the scenes.
As for the "diva-like tendencies", I haven't read the article but it looks like Cashman never said that. It sounds better for the story to paint a picture that Jeter was this high-maintenance narcissist that Cashman stood up to despite his iconic status but I'm sure that's EXTREMELY exaggerated. What I will admit is that I do like what Cashman did and it's encouraging to know that our GM going forward has bigger balls than any executive in baseball.
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