Damon pursuing Jeter-like payday

CHICAGO - We now return to the business portion of the program.

The Yankees were hoping all the joy associated with being a champion Yankee would motivate Johnny Damon to accept a one- or, at the most, two-year deal to return.

However, his representative, Scott Boras, flushed the notion of a hometown bargain. Instead, he compared his client to Derek Jeter and sounded as if he wants a three- or four-year deal for Damon.

Damon has just concluded a four-year deal worth $13 million per year, and generally Boras does not want his clients to take pay cuts.

If that is indeed the case, then the Yankees and Damon are heading for divorce. The Yankees are concerned about how Damon's desire and body will hold up during another long-term contract. They also have overall concerns about tying up too many thirtysomething players long-term and facing an aging cataclysm around 2012-13. The Yanks, in fact, might not want to offer Damon even a two-year deal.

"We agree that Johnny is a tremendous player," general manager Brian Cashman said when faced with Boras' case. "He's had a huge impact on our offense. Where we go moving forward is still to be seen."

Boras laid out three major reasons why Damon deserves significant long-term dollars:

1. By hitting second, Damon not only thrived, but enabled Jeter to have one of his best seasons. Boras said the Yanks should look at the duo together as an engine to the lineup.

"That is a 1-2 combo that relied on one another," Boras said.

2. Boras argued Damon's past three seasons equate well with the past three seasons for Jeter, and so whatever the Yanks are intending to do with Jeter long-term (likely extending him for three or four years after next season) Damon deserves similar consideration.

Over the last three years, Damon has an .813 OPS with 53 homers and 68 steals compared to .829/41/56 for Jeter. Damon, 36, is seven months older than Jeter. Boras also said the Yanks gave Jorge Posada a four-year extension when Posada was about to enter his age-36 season.

Jeter and Posada play more valuable positions, and Jeter is an iconic player in Yankee history.

3. Boras argues Damon has historic durability and "the body of a 30-year-old." Damon has played 140 or more games in 14 straight seasons. The only players who have done that more frequently are Hank Aaron, Brooks Robinson and Pete Rose (16 straight years) and Willie Mays (15).

"Greg Maddux was the unique pitcher when it came to durability," Boras said of another client. "And [Damon] is the Greg Maddux of position players when it comes to durability."

The Yankees worry, however, that the amount of games already has begun to chip away at Damon's body and makes him more likely to break down in the near future.

The Yankees intend to either pick up Sergio Mitre's $1.25 million option by next week's deadline or offer him arbitration, whichever they perceive as less costly, The Post has learned.

Mitre was just 3-3 with a 6.79 ERA after returning from Tommy John surgery. But the Yanks feel he will be better in 2010 and is an asset for either rotation depth, long relief or to use in a trade.

The Yanks are hoping that among Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Mitre, Chad Gaudin, Ian Kennedy and Alfredo Aceves they can create rotation depth.

As for Chien-Ming Wang, his agent, Alan Nero, said surgeon James Andrews cleared the righty to throw beginning on Dec. 1, and that he could be ready by mid-April or early May to pitch in regular-season games after shoulder surgery.

However, Yankee doctors have not seen Wang and the team plans on non-tendering the righty rather than risk paying a minimum of $4 million for him in 2010. The Yanks will then consider if he is worth offering a low-base, incentive-laden contract to return.