Arod was younger than I remembered him being in that contract. However, this is kind of where it apples to oranges becomes oranges to apples (that probably didn't make any sense). Arod was a total disappointment in NY until his amazing year in 2009 where he was clutch in both the regular season and playoffs. 2009 obviously coming after his new contract; so the contract Arod has right now that has him signed on to be a Yankee until he is 42 was based on really good regular seasons and abysmal post seasons (not to mention the numerous distractions that have popped up with Arod in NY over the years)...yet they were willing to give him an improved contract that pretty much ensures he will be a Yankee for life.
Derek Jeter on the other hand is a few years older than Arod was at the time of his contract signing, but has been an intricate part of the team in both the regular and post seasons his entire career. Now I'm not saying that players should be awarded contracts based on lifetime achievements, but he is just 1 year removed from one of his best seasons in his career. He's always been, as far as anyone knows at least, great in the clubhouse and never brought any distractions to the team.
So, the reason I compare the two contracts is because the Yankees were willing to sign (and improve upon) a contract for Arod until he was 42 despite having numerous distractions follow him around and a resume of not performing when the Yankees needed him the most. Yet they're only willing to sign Derek Jeter until he is 39?
I think he'll hit at least .300 next year, if he doesn't it means he has definitely fallen off considering his career average is around .315.
He isn't a homerun hitter, but his bat has a nice pop. A slugging percentage of .450+ for someone who doesn't hit a lot of homeruns is nothing to scoff at.
You're right he isn't blazing fast, but he's a good base stealer still. He hit 30 stolen bases as recent as 2009. In this day and age of baseball that is good enough to be among the best. It's a far cry from Crawford, but 30 stolen bases puts you in the top 20 in the majors each of the past couple of years.
The RBIs are a misleading stat. He hits in the #1 spot in the lineup which naturally reduces RBI opportunities. When you want to see how effective someone should be at driving in runs then just look at the slugging percentage as that will be most representative of the types of hits a player is getting and whether or not it gives anyone on base time to score
Of course all of that said I would agree that 15 million a year is too much for a player at his age. I just think the Yankees should offer more years.
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