It's Time for Jeter and Rivera to Get Their Money

(Originally published 11/17/10 in "The Montclarion")

Just how much are the Yankees willing to give away to keep notorious icons Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera on their team, and to make these life-long legends a staple in the Yankee pinstripes for their entire careers?

Even at the age of 41, the Yankees owe it to Mariano Rivera to pay him the money that he wants.

Since mid-1995, when both players climbed up from the minor league and joined the major leagues roster, they’ve won five World Series titles and seven American Leagues Pennants. They’ve grown up and adopted the demeanor Joe Torre presented them: calm, collect, professional and gracious. When was the last time you heard either of these players in the middle of a controversy?


Jeter and Rivera have reached the end of their contracts and face free agency. Not the first time for either of them, but this time it’s different. The conscious choice around the Yankee organization, its players and its fans is to keep the future hall-of-famers on for another go-around with the team. Opposing teams understand they aren’t going to land either of them and probably aren’t even trying to. Their baseball stories will stay here in New York City. People assumed the same last time their contracts ran out, but they were younger then and in the prime of their careers and their championship runs. Now, each is creeping a little bit closer towards retirement, and in terms of baseball years, they’re eligible to collect social security in the next year or two.

Jeter is coming off a below-average year (according to his standards) and Rivera is no longer automatic. Reasonably, they should be getting contracts that range from seven to 10 million dollars a year, at most. But they know their value to this organization as well as everyone else. It would be a perfect end and a great feel-good story to have the two most influential players of this Yankee era arise from their farm system and end their tenure as a Yankee. The Yankee organization recognizes the importance of retaining these players and has publicly announced that they are willing to give a little extra to make sure they’re happy.

But do they deserve it?

Their skills show otherwise, and even the great Babe Ruth was left off the Yankees during his final years as a player, and no one is more influential to the game than the Great Bambino. Jeter is a model most shortstops wish to be like, and most closers wish they could be as lights-out as Rivera. It would be stupid not to pay up for their talents. Paying them the extra money is like giving them a tip thanking them for the dynasty they helped build from the mid-1990’s, a dynasty that hasn’t fallen.

If the Yankees didn’t have so many numbers retired already, they might have added number two to the list. They still might, and probably should. And if Jackie Robinson hadn’t worn number 42, Rivera would have been following in Jeter’s footsteps. They both deserve a monument in Yankee stadium, monuments bigger than George Steinbrener’s when all is said and done. Their names will remain in infamy when spoken in New York City. Pay them their dues. They might not match the money they’ll earn for the future, but for all the money they helped bring to the Yankee organization, I’m sure they deserve a little reward.