Derek Jeter knows what they're thinking the thousands of adoring fans who fill Yankee Stadium every night, the dozens of news media representatives in the New York Yankees locker room before and after every game, even his teammates who will put on the famed uniforms today when they open their American League Division Series against the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis.
It's not just the impending end of the Yankees captain's 10-year, $189 million contract. It's not that he could become a free agent after the World Series and wind up playing for another team after spending his entire 16-year career in New York — a glorious run that has included five World Series titles and made Jeter a lock for baseball's Hall of Fame.

Jeter also is finishing the worst season of his career at the age of 36, igniting a debate not so much over where he'll play — teammates and analysts think he'll re-sign with New York — but what return the Yankees can expect from what probably would be another multiyear, eight-figure investment.