MLB

Yankees, Mets futures tied to shortstops 

Andy Pettitte revealed his plans. Irving Picard revealed his case.

And with those twin disclosures last week, the New York version of spring training became both more intriguing and more difficult for the two teams.

Pettitte’s official retirement assured that George M. Steinbrenner Field will be the stage for the reality show Who Wants to be a Yankees Starter? The Yankees might be fine if this were, say, 2005, when better versions of Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia still roamed the sport. Or 2013 when prospects Manuel Banuelos, Dellin Betances and Andrew Brackman might be more fully developed.

But in 2011 the Yankees are going to have to sort through the past-the-prime and not-ready-for-primetime to find the back end of a rotation that at least rises to competence.

Across the state in Port St. Lucie, the Mets will have their own rotation problems with Mike Pelfrey masquerading as an ace in place of the injured Johan Santana while Chris Capuano and Chris Young also hope to turn back time.

But the clock being eyed now is the one ticking toward midnight on Wilpon ownership. Picard, the trustee for victims of the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, is coming after the Mets’ owners for hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution and, for now anyway, has shut off settlement negotiations. The Wilpons have initially taken a fighting pose. But the sense around the game is that they are in dire financial peril that could force them to sell not a fraction of the team — as they have publicly stated they would — but the whole entity.

Thus, the operation of the team will be under as much scrutiny this spring as the Yankees’ rotation. Yet with a week until camps open, neither the Yankees’ rotation nor the Mets’ financial plight feels like the most fascinating story in New York baseball:

The shortstops do.

Cue the “Who Are You?” soundtrack as we begin the process of discovering the current identities of Derek Jeter and Jose Reyes, once electric stars, now in question. So much of where the franchises are pointing now and in the future depends on the results.

The retirement of Pettitte has reduced the Core Four to the ’Kee Three. And even this revised edition is on life support. The Yankees already have de-emphasized Jorge Posada from a catcher to a DH, a first step toward the door when his contract expires after this season.

And part of the nastiness in the negotiations between the Yankees and Jeter on his new three-year deal clearly stemmed from concerns about committing too much for too long to a player who might have begun a career fade last season.

In an attempt to rebound, Jeter underwent a batting boot camp recently with hitting coach Kevin Long to continue alterations to Jeter’s stance and swing that began late last season. Long and the Yanks are confident Jeter will produce better results in 2011. Should he return to the land of .300 hitters, then discussions of the end can be tabled for at least another year. But what if .270 last year was not a blip, but a first step toward .250?

Imagine how grim Jeter’s march to the 74 hits for 3,000 would be. The tension of the negotiations would infiltrate the season as Joe Girardi would be forced to decide if (when?) to drop Jeter toward the bottom of the lineup and possibly even begin to give away some of his playing time, perhaps to prospect Eduardo Nunez.

The return of Jeter’s offense is one way the Yankees can compensate for worrisome starting pitching. But Jeter turns 37 this year, and the only full-time shortstops to excel offensively at that age or older were Luke Appling and Honus Wagner. Jeter can begin showing in spring if he can defy age and history.

Reyes turns 28 two weeks before Jeter turns 37, so in theory he should be in his prime. Yet an old-player problem, durability, bedevils Reyes and so do questions of baseball IQ. Will he be healthy enough and smart enough as a player to fully deploy his tool shed? At his best, Reyes resembles Carl Crawford, but as a switch-hitter who plays a more vital position. He also would enter free agency a year younger than Crawford, who just got a seven-year, $142 million deal from Boston.

Enter the Reyes conundrum for the Mets. Of course they want him to be healthy and play well. But what do the Mets do if that happens? Do they trade him in July, further disenchanting their already disenchanted fan base, especially if they are in contention? Do they play out the season with him? Would a Sandy Alderson-led front office that loves on-base percentage and has little use for the stolen base even want to sign Reyes long-term?

And if baseball operations wanted to keep Reyes long-term, would the Wilpons — assuming they are still the owners — have the fiscal maneuverability and desire to retain the greatest shortstop in franchise history.

Of course it all begins with health. So Reyes can start answering questions over the next few weeks in a Grapefruit League that — for New Yorkers — should provide compelling short stories.

joel.sherman@nypost.com