The end of Derek Jeter?

Derek Jeter’s 2012 season cannot be undersold he was absolutely amazing, I don’t think anybody thought that at age 38 he would possibly hit as well as he did, I did not even realize until I saw the stats but his 216 hits in the 2012 season was the second most in his career as in only once in his 18 year Major League baseball career did he have more hits than in 2012 and that was way back in 1999 when he had 219. That being said everything changed when Jeter broke his ankle in the ALCS, let’s be clear this happened because he played through the pain his ankle had been bothering him all September and instead of resting he got a cortisone shot to keep playing because the Yankees needed him too. Derek said he would be back by opening day and that seemed unlikely because he was coming off a BROKEN ANKLE, and sure enough despite the possibility being raised during spring training Derek wasn’t ready. Then it turned out that he had fractured his ankle in his attempt to be ready and now will be out until at least the all-star break but no return date has been set.

 There are a huge number of problems with this injury beyond the fact that Derek Jeter is not playing with the Yankees and they really could use his bat right now. The biggest problem that comes up is “Can he play Short stop?” I mean Derek hasn’t had good range in years and it’s been especially bad the last three years and now he has a broken ankle on top of that. It would be one thing if Nunez was still throwing the ball away every other play, but his fielding has been pretty good and if we are being honest definitely better than Jeter’s. It’s a monument to Jeter that he has been able to play Short stop for 18 years and it’s the only place he has ever fielded, but I honestly do not think that he can play there on that ankle. The Yankees will probably try him out at Short a bit but I expect that he will mostly DH when he returns, but what about next year? I don’t know if Derek will pick up his player option for next season and it is technically possible that Derek could retire at the end of the year, I expect that he will want to play more after the season and what if he doesn’t want to DH 100 games or if the Yankees say he needs to change positions and he won’t do it, what happens then?  In 2014 the Yankees cannot have the left side of their infield feature a shortstop with a broken ankle and a 3^rd baseman who has had two hip surgeries and both Jeter and A-Rod will likely need to DH frequently anyway. Also Jeter’s speed will likely be completely gone, it happens to most people who break an ankle and it does make me wonder how well Jeter will be in taking the extra base, I expect that he will push himself to do it but it’s very possible that he just won’t be able to anymore.  As of right now this doesn’t impact the Yankees as they need to actually be close to getting The Captain back before we can truly wonder where he will play and what his impact will be, but it’s still in the back of my mind.This off season contract negotiations could end up being a lot more stressful than the one that caused so much controversy in the 2010 off season.