Curly Haired Boyfriend has a Crazy Idea

Dan Shaughnessy or Napoleon Dynamite?  You decide...

Dan Shaughnessy has officially lost his mind.  No, seriously.  Earlier today, he suggested that it would be a good idea for the Red Sox to offer Derek Jeter a 3 year $60M contract. 

"Dissing Jeter is not a winning strategy, but the Yankees can get away with it because they know that no team is going to make a serious offer for the iconic shortstop.

Which brings us back to John Henry. Suppose the Red Sox step up and shock the world? There is simply no downside to making Jeter a massive offer. In the worst-case scenario he calls your bluff and you get the Yankees captain.

I don’t care if Jeter is way past his prime or if the Sox would have to wildly overpay a player of his diminished skills.

I say offer him the world. Forget about Jayson Werth. Blow Jeter away with dollars and years. At worst this would just mean the Sox would jack up the final price the Yankees must pay. It could be sort of like Mark Teixeira-in-reverse.

And if Jeter actually signed with Boston, the damage to the Yankees’ psyche would be inestimable.

Jeter finishing his career in a Red Sox uniform would be the 2004 American League Championship Series all over again for the hated New Yorkers. Think of how you’d have felt if the Knicks had signed Larry Bird at the end of his career."

Really?  That's your great idea?  While it might be a little fun poking a stick into the Yankees side, at the end of the day it's not worth it.  What do the Red Sox have to gain by wasting their energy and resources on a player they're never going to sign?  Jeter is a Yankee through and through.  He takes wearing Yankee pin stripes very seriously, and seems to take great joy in being a part of the Yankee mystique.  Honestly, we might have an easier time convincing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Holocaust was real.  Ok, maybe that's a little far.  I'm merely trying to point out that it's a wasted effort.  While it might force the Yankees to increase their offer, it's possible they're going to do that anyway.   Sure, it's nice that they're holding the line, but they're not going to let a few million dollars get in the way of their Captain retiring as a Yankee. 

What would the Red Sox do in the extremely unlikely event Jeter and Close accepted the 3/$60M offer?  It would be nothing short of a disaster.  While the contract doesn't have long term ramifications, it would huge short term consequences.  You know how Theo strives for payroll flexibility?  You can kiss that goodbye for the next three seasons.  That bridge Theo was building?  Let's just say it would collapse under the weight of Jeter's massive salary.  How about prospect Jose Iglesias?  Blocked.  It's unlikely that Jeter would be willing to both sign with the Yankees and change positions.  As a result, the Red Sox pitching staff would suffer immensely causing ERAs to jump. 

Shaughnessy's article is clearly aimed at the "Yankees suck!" crowd.  While I appreciate being a part of that crowd (albeit ONLY when the Red Sox and Yankees are playing), it's not a particularly bright or rational crowd.  It's too bad he feels more comfortable channeling the aimless emotion of Red Sox Nation in his articles.  He'd better serve both RSN and the Boston Globe by providing original, rational baseball analysis.