Derek Jeter's bat no longer makes up for his glove. Photo: Icon SMI
Without reviving an old controversy, and acknowledging that he’s won four Gold Gloves, it’s fair to say that even at his best Mr. Jeter wasn’t the defensive peer of Mr. Wills, let alone Messrs. Vizquel and Smith. But this season, Mr. Jeter’s glove is worth the equivalent of -11 runs using Baseball Info Solutions’s ‘Runs Saved’ metric, which measures a player’s defensive output. That’s worst among all Yankees and 33rd among the league’s top-35 shortstops.
Those with Mr. Jeter’s face indelibly etched on their arms may be interested in seeing what such a player can do at shortstop in his golden years. A team interested in winning likely shouldn’t be.
If you look at WAR instead of Runs Saved, Jeter’s defense, in the context of his career, isn’t that bad this year. What’s hurting him is that his offense isn’t making up for it as much as usual. Jeter’s decline is evident in his batting runs. He produced less than ten runs in two of the last three seasons, the first times in his career he came in under double digits. The spike in 2009 may very well have been his last great season.
That said, Jeter is still a player who can win with the Yankees, if they fill in the pieces around him properly. One way to do that, of course, is to recognize that Jeter is no longer an $18 million a year player, and drop his pay to $8 million a year. Then the Yankees can use the money saved to improve in other areas.
That is going to be difficult, however, especially with A-Rod earning all that money as his hip degenerates. Maybe the Yankees can pull off a five-year, $40 million contract if they do some kind of lifetime deal, where Jeter gets a job with the organization when he retires. If Joe Girardi decides to go for the Cubs job when his contract is up, I would be tempted to make Jeter a player-manager, like the way his mentor Joe Torre started. The Yankees are going to need to be creative to keep Jeter without putting themselves in a long-term hole.
It’d probably also help if they moved Jeter to 1B, let him concentrate on hittin’/walkin’ so he can get the 3,0000 hit mark and stay as a productive Yankee for a few more years and be a lifetime Yankee.
They could trade Teixeira for a SS who could help them bridge the gap years between Jeter & 2010 draft pick Cito Culver develops to the major league level.
Hi. I’ve been checking out your site for a while, and have been much enjoying it; this is my first comment. In fairness, it’s probably more of a rant.
As a life-long Yankee fan and career-long Jeter fan, you can well imagine where my loyalties lie. Nevertheless, I agreed with everything you said -even the dispiriting line, “The spike in 2009 may very well have been his last great season”- until the second-to-last paragraph. That’s where you recommended the Yankees drop Jeter’s salary from $18M to $8M so “…the Yankees can use the money saved to improve in other areas.”
Really? The Yankees have been called the Evil Empire. They have been lambasted for their freee-spending ways. The front office has been castigated for lavish huge contracts on undeserving players. They have been accused of buying championships while ruining the financial structure and competitive balance of an entire league. Simply put- money is virtually no issue to the Yankees. (Yes, even in the evolving Hal/Cashman era.) Their ability to improve in other areas and put championship-caliber pieces around Derek Jeter will in no remote way be impacted by how much they shell out to one of the most successful, beloved and recognizeable Yankees of all time.
Yes, the numbers in baseball salaries are absurd. But by the peculiar standards of the genre, Jeter has well earned $15M a year for a few more years as he finishes out his first-ballot Hall of Fame career. His impact on the team in terms of marketing, merchandising and attendance alone justify it; let alone the more amorphous concepts of “respect” and “appreciation” due the Captain.
Maybe other teams need to look at the broader impact of one player’s contract before putting pen to paper. Not this team to this player. An iconic player on an iconic team should be so compensated. There is no downside- Jeter’s contract will not affect the ability to maintain emerging starts, sign a top starting pitcher, or anything else. And nobody in the clubhouse or the city will be put off by the dollars because… well, because he’s Derek Jeter and they’re not. People get that.
The Yankees always have the go-to option of cranking up the YES Network cash machine and printing more money. The countdown to 3,000 hits alone will generate untold millions for the team.
Don Mattingly left on dubious terms, and then Joe Tore did too. Bernie Williams’ departure was not smooth, either. This one needs to be different. Lock him up, give him the money, roll ou a lifetime personal-services agreement…and start planning for one heck of a weekend in Cooperstown.
(Wow. I feel better now. I guess I’m more of a Derek Jeter fan than I thought. And don’t even get me started on Mariano…)
@REA: I don’t disagree about Jeter’s salary. I just wonder how long the Yankees can go on giving high salary, long term contracts to aging players. At some point, you’ll have A-Rod, Jeter, Mo and Posada pulling an otherwise good team down.
@REA: I’m a Yankees fan too, and as much as I’d LOVE to see Jeter play out the rest of his career in a Yankees’ uniform, I don’t want that to get in the way of winning a championship.
If his bat stays like this (and it very well may at this part of his career), he’s not worth 15 million. Getting 3000 hits isn’t a big deal. Yeah, it’s a great milestone, but ESPN won’t be cutting in like they will when A-Rod approaches some milestone HRs, like they will when Pujols begins to do the same. Jeter is a HUGE figure… to Yankees fans. He’s a great role model and spokesman and always seems to know the right thing to say, but those intangibles don’t have an effect on the game.
If Jeet demands a 15 million dollar contract, I’d just as soon let him walk than give him that. Going from 18 to 7-9 million would equate to a pitcher, essentially. 18 to 15 million? That’s enough to pay for… Nick Johnson.
While you make a great point that the Yankees don’t have to worry about money, there’s certainly a number that Cashman is given that he has to stay below. You can be sure the Yankees are going to pursue Cliff Lee in the offseason. Maybe Crawford. They’re going to need to drop some payroll somewhere, and right now the only places I see that happening are in letting Nick Johnson go, dropping Jeter’s salary by more than just 3-4 million, and the departure of either Pettite (retirement) or Vazquez (free agency).
Back to the beginning… the Yankees are going to need to add an impact player next year, for one reason or another, and Cashman seems to have a budget. If Jeter’s contract gets in the way of them adding another player of that caliber, I don’t care if you have to hurt feelings– the Yankees aren’t going to lose money by letting Jeter walk.
I have to tell you I watch at least 155 Yankee games a year and I have never understood all the negative stuff about his fielding. Is he the best fielder-no. He makes the routine plays, turns the double play,makes a few outstanding plays to his right and very few to his left and doesn’t make many mental errors. That said, I don’t know where he can be moved other than switching him with Cano. LF,RF,3B and 1B are all occupied by good players.