Updated: November 2, 2010, 6:37 PM ET
That much was clear when, asked during a radio interview Tuesday about the negotiations to keep Derek Jeter a Yankee, the younger son of George M. Steinbrenner III said, "We absolutely want him back. But having said that, we're running a business here, so if there's a deal to be done, it's going to have to be a deal that both sides are happy with."
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But he was unable to put a time frame on how long negotiations would take or hazard a guess on how smoothly they would go. "Who knows?" he said. "You just never know with these things. Both parties need to be happy with the deal, and that may make things more complicated, I don't know. There's always the possibility that things could get messy."
Jeter, 36, is coming off the worst overall season of his 16-year major league career. His .270 batting average, the lowest since he became a regular in 1996, is 44 points below his career batting average and represents a 64-point drop off his 2009 production, when he hit .334. His 179 hits matched the lowest total since his injury-shortened 2003 season, and his .340 on-base percentage the lowest since his rookie season of 1995.
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"I know our fans are very emotional and that's what we love about them," Steinbrenner said. "But I've got to do my job on behalf of the partnership and our partners and everybody else involved in the organization. [Brother and co-chariman] Hank and I need to keep a level head and realize that we're running a business here. We have to remain somewhat objective and we're going to do that."
Still, Steinbrenner described Jeter and Mariano Rivera, who is also a free agent, as "hopefully lifelong Yankees" and said that re-signing both of them "is going to be a priority."
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"Obviously we want them back," he said. "They're two of the greatest Yankees ever."
In the eight-and-a-half minute interview, Steinbrenner touched on a variety of topics, ranging from his disappointment over the Yankees elimination by the Texas Rangers in the ALCS ("It's a horrible feeling, obviously") to the 2011 payroll ("I can safely say we're going to stay within the same levels") and the team's expected pursuit of high-level free agents such as left-hander Cliff Lee ("We will have money to spend and we will get into it.").
He said that all areas of the team were being evaluated at organizational meetings being held in Tampa this week with Cashman, team president Randy Levine and other members of the organization.
"What we've been doing the last two days is what we do every offseason," Steinbrenner said. "There's always areas of improvement that are necessary. We look at the team piece by piece, we determine what our priorities are going to be, what areas we need to improve upon and then we look around. We look at what possible fits are in the free-agent market, and then we'll look at possible trades as well.
"We know we're expected to field a championship-caliber team and we're going to do what it takes to do that," he said. "So if we have to get creative in a trade or if we have to go after a big free agent, we're going to do it. We're going to be a World Series-type team next year. Absolutely."
Come to think of it, that sounded an awful lot like Hal Steinbrenner's father after all.
Wallace Matthews covers the Yankees for ESPNNewYork.com.
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