The slow-moving process of securing Derek Jeter's signature on a new Yankees contract has reached the next step, as the team is preparing to deliver its first offer to the shortstop's camp.

While the Yankees are expected to make an initial serve to Jeter of three years and $45 million, it is not expected that Jeter will jump at that first proposal. And if the view from outside the process is that it has taken a while to get moving, Jeter's agent Casey Close would seem to agree.

"There's a reason the Yankees themselves have stated Derek Jeter is their modern-day Babe Ruth," Close told the New York Daily News in Sunday's editions. "Derek's significance to the team is much more than just stats. And yet, the Yankees' negotiating strategy remains baffling."