Yankees GM Cashman told Jeter in 2010 he’d rather have Tulowitzki

New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told Derek Jeter in 2010 that he would rather have Troy Tulowitzki as the team's shortstop, according to a profile piece on Cashman in this week's Sports Illustrated written by S.L. Price.

Jeter and the Yankees were involved in some contentious contract negotiations at the time when the New York captain, coming off one of his worst seasons, asked the GM, "Who would you rather have playing shortstop this year than me?"

Cashman replied, "Do you really want me to answer that?" When Jeter insisted he did, Cashman told him Tulowitzki, then with the Colorado Rockies.

"We're not paying extra money for popularity," Cashman added. "We're paying for performance."

Wrote Price: "Cashman calls Jeter "the greatest player I will have ever had," but often admitted impatience with Jeter's divalike tendencies. He likes being one of the few to tell the Captain no."

Cashman told the New York Daily News on Wednesday that he didn't have any issues with the story.

"No, I don't have any problems with the piece," he said.

As for the Tulo anecdote, Cashman said he didn't provide the information to Price.

"I didn't confirm it or deny it. (Price) asked me about it. I said it was a private meeting," said Cashman, who added, "If players ask me questions, I'll answer directly and honestly."

As for Jeter's "divalike tendencies," Cashman said he never uttered those words.

"I didn't say he had divalike tendencies," he told the Daily News. "It's a piece (Price) wrote. He put it together. You'd have to ask him about that. There's no quotes about that from me."

Portrayed as brutally honest in the piece, Cashman is quoted saying, "Sometimes honesty hurts. But if you're being paid to do a job, do the job. You have to honor the job description; if not, you're a fraud or stealing money. You can't fake your way doing this. You either do it or you don't."

SHUT UP, A-ROD — Cashman said he regrets his June 2013 remarks to reporters about Alex Rodriguez that "Alex should just shut the (bleep) up" about his performance-enhancing drugs scandal.

"I blew my top," Cashman told SI. "I got calls from managers, general managers, agents, players. They were all, 'I've been wanting to say that, good for you.'

"But I was embarrassed. I conduct myself, for the most part, at a much higher standard than that."