Who's at Short?

Photo Credit: Leon Haslip, Getty Images

As I wrote in an earlier article we may be looking at the end of Derek Jeter and almost definitely looking at the end of Jeter at shortstop. The Yankees came into the year with Eduardo Nunez as the starting shortstop and while he was improved on defense his offensive production left a lot to be desired with a paltry .200/.290/.275 in 95 Plate appearances. A player would need to be an elite defender for those numbers to be acceptable and unfortunately Jayson Nix really has not been much better, Nix has been exactly replacement level while Nunez is almost a full win below replacement level. Recently Brian Cashman said that he doesn't plan on making a larger  acquisition at shortstop and so he is apparently putting all his eggs into the Derek Jeter basket which is very likely a mistake. The real problem is that that Jeter is most likely done as anything more than a part time shortstop and that may be being generous. As I have said before 38 year olds are not supposed to play short stop and I do not think that Jeter can physically play on that ankle more than once in a while, Jeter has already exceeded expectations for his age and expecting the same production is borderline insane.
The other half of the problem is that quality short stops are not in an abundance, especially since the Yankees would need to bring in someone as a long term answer and there just aren't any available unless they want to give a long term deal to Stephen Drew this off season and he still looks bad since his terrible ANKLE INJURY and from which he has never regained his previous form.
The trade market doesn't look much better as the only potentially available quality short stop is the White Sox  Alexi Ramirez and he is 31 so he would not be more than a stopgap. Ramirez has done well in his career hitting .275/.315/.404 and is considered a good defender. Jimmy Rollins presents another possibility but he would be even more of a stopgap as his is 34 and only under contract for one more season, he has had a much better career than Ramirez but at this point they are very similar players as Rollins has posted a slash line this year of .264/.329/.403. But what really prevents me from saying that the Yankees should trade for Rollins or Ramirez is that I expect that they will be traded at the deadline and even worse is that I expect the Yankees could make a good offer to the Phillies or White Sox and end up really helping the team but I do not think that the Yankees or Brian Cashman will do it. So for the foreseeable future it looks like Idontknow will be playing Short stop for the Yankees because the only true Short stop they have is Eduardo Nunez and exactly no prospects in the minors at short unless you consider Cito Culver still a prospect and you really shouldn't.