TOSS ACROSS: Derek Jeter loosens up at the Yankees’ training complex in Tampa yesterday. Jeter, recovering from a fractured left ankle, said he began baseball activities the same way he does every year. (Leah Millis)
TOSS ACROSS: Derek Jeter loosens up at the Yankees’ training complex in Tampa yesterday. Jeter, recovering from a fractured left ankle, said he began baseball activities the same way he does every year. (Leah Millis)
TAMPA — Derek Jeter has spent a lot of Super Bowl Mondays the way he did yesterday.
He took some swings off a tee and fielded a few dozen slow ground balls hit right at him at the Yankees’ minor league complex.
To him, this prelude to spring training isn’t much different than normal.
“When I start baseball activities, I do what I did right there,” Jeter said while sitting in his car outside the complex.
Jeter stayed off the infield dirt throughout the session and has yet to move laterally on the field — all of which he insisted was standard procedure since position players don’t have to report until Feb. 17.
“The first week or two, I don’t get off the grass,” said Jeter, who doesn’t anticipate running until spring training officially gets under way. “Even if I could run right now and I got the green light to do absolutely everything, I would have done the same thing I did today.”
Both Jeter and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman have said throughout the offseason the shortstop will be brought along more as he rehabs from October surgery on the left ankle he fractured during the ALCS, although an exact road map has yet to be laid out.
“I probably won’t be out there playing in a game the first game,” Jeter said of the Feb. 23 spring-training opener against the Braves in Orlando. “I guess we have to sit down with our trainers and doctors to see what our plan is when I start playing games.”
But he remains confident he is heading in the right direction.
“You’ve got to progress and I’ve been progressing just fine,” Jeter said. “Now, it’s whenever I start running and doing those kinds of things. Once everything is where it’s supposed to be, then you just get in baseball shape, which really doesn’t take that long, I don’t think.”
His primary focus remains being back at shortstop for the regular-season opener against the the Red Sox.
“The goal is April 1 when we start our season, so I’m right where I need to be,” Jeter said.
Whether the team is where it needs to be is another question, and one Jeter isn’t prepared to answer yet, although he likes last week’s free-agent signing of left-handed DH Travis Hafner.
“I’ve played against him for quite some time,” Jeter said. “He’s had a lot of success in Cleveland. But with our organization, I don’t pay too much attention till we get over to spring training. I still remember … when we traded for [Roger] Clemens, it was right before spring training started, wasn’t it?”
He professed no knowledge of an impending move and reiterated his belief this aging Yankees team is “experienced” and not “old.”
“I’ve heard it before,” Jeter said. “Regardless of how old anyone is, it’s our job to come here and be ready to play and help us compete. We’ve been able to do that pretty successfully over the years. Our plans don’t change.”
As for his own future, Jeter has a player option for 2014 worth at least $9.5 million, depending on incentives. He insists he’s not thinking about it.
“Next year?” Jeter said. “I’m trying to make it through this week.”
* Although Alex Rodriguez’s mouthpieces have denied on multiple occasions the third baseman had anything to do with Anthony Bosch, his anti-aging clinic or PEDs, Jeter wants his teammate to talk publicly about it before he weighs in himself.
“Let him speak first,” Jeter said. “Everybody knows that. I don’t comment on anyone till they speak first. Let him address his situation before I comment on it.”
Jeter also wouldn’t divulge whether he has communicated with the embattled Rodriguez since the Miami New Times released records allegedly tying Rodriguez to Bosch, his Biogenesis company and illegal drugs.
“Let him speak first,” Jeter repeated. “And then we’ll talk about that.”