Whatever Derek Jeter and his agent are smoking, I want it. Because that stuff must be fantastic if they think they’re getting $150 million from the Yankees.

Per Bill Madden of the New York Daily News, Jeter and the Yankees are at least “$80 million apart in negotiations.” Jeter’s initial contract request called for six years and $150 million, while the Yankees are “only” offering three years at $45 million.

I’ve been a Jeter fan since he dazzled everyone in his rookie year but what is he thinking? Six years and $150 million? For hitting .270 last year and playing a very average shortstop? Unless he recently found the fountain of youth and drank it bone dry, then there’s no way the Yankees will/should come close to $150 million for this guy. I know he’s a legend and the Bombers have already put him on the Babe Ruth pedestal, but get real.

Brian Cashman said it best when he told Jeter that he should test the open market if he feels as though the Yankees are shortchanging him. Because there’s no way in Hades that Jeter would receive a three-year deal worth $45 million from another team – not to mention a six-year contract worth $150 million. He’s a 36-year-old shortstop coming off a down year offensively and just doesn’t have it any more defensively. Don’t get it twisted – he’s still a nice player at the right price. But that’s the key: at the right price.

As I wrote on Wednesday, he’s going to wind up back in pinstripes next season. But this storyline gets juicer by the day.