CAPTAIN CRUNCH: With Yankees captain Derek Jeter unable to play shortstop because of a bone bruise in his left foot, manager Joe Girardi has had to keep Alex Rodriguez at third base and play defensively inferior Eduardo Nunez at short. (Paul J. Bereswill)
So, a brief word on durability, the most important tool not found among baseball’s traditional five.
After all, you might hit or hit with power or throw, but what is the value of any of those skills if you can’t get on field? Nick Johnson had a wonderful hitting eye. It didn’t do him or his teams much good on the disabled list (where he is again for the Orioles, by the way). Eric Chavez and Kerry Wood possessed Hall-of-Fame talent, but not the resilient bodies to keep them on a Cooperstown trajectory.
Now, let us turn to Derek Jeter. It is not only that he has played brilliantly in this season of revival. It is that he has played and played. You can’t accumulate big numbers without making it to the post daily and Jeter’s 665 plate appearances lead the AL and are second in the majors, behind Michael Bourn of the Braves.
If this holds, it would mark the fifth time Jeter has led a league in plate appearances. Only Pete Rose (seven) would have a greater amount. More impressive is that Jeter is doing this at 38. The current record for oldest player to lead a league in plate appearances is Rose, at 37 in 1978. Jeter is on pace for 738 plate appearances and the record for a player 38 or older is currently Rose’s 735 in 1980. All of these Rose comparisons — especially durability — are going to provide fuel that Jeter just might be able to eclipse the all-time hit record.
It takes an amalgamation of mental and physical toughness, pride and accountability to get on the field as consistently as Jeter has in his career, and we are seeing all of that in play now. He has been dealing with a bone bruise in his left foot for weeks and it worsened enough last week in Boston that he has been reduced to being a designated hitter the past four games.
In June, he would try to talk his way into the lineup with this level of injury, but manager Joe Girardi would see the wisdom of a few days of rest. But both men understand the implications now, and there is no way the Yankees’ hottest hitter is sitting. Not when each game’s meaning is so precious.
Nevertheless, Jeter’s limitations will have spillover ramifications on two players, in particular:
ALEX RODRIGUEZ — If Jeter is the Yankees’ hottest hitter, Rodriguez is 1A. Since coming off the DL, Rodriguez has 11 RBIs in 13 games while hitting .300 with a .520 slugging percentage. So the Yankees must keep his bat in the lineup, too. But with Jeter at DH and possibly having to do that for a while longer, Rodriguez has to play the field. That is suddenly uncharted water for a player who has gone from Iron Man durable to more fragile in recent years.
Up until now, Girardi had been careful not to overplay Rodriguez at third. But he pretty much has no choice now. Consider that in Rodriguez’s first nine games off the DL, he started just three at third base. He just started four straight days. He had only played as many as four straight days (again days, not games) at third base once this year, in June.
Rodriguez had the benefit of an off-day yesterday. But the Yankees do not have another this season. You have to believe Girardi will have Jeter and Rodriguez in every meaningful game the rest of the way. But if Jeter can’t take the field, it will be interesting to see if Rodriguez can handle the daily grind of third base.
EDUARDO NUNEZ — He is playing short while Jeter is out. Can that get ugly at times? Yep. But Nunez also has shown an electric quality that can help what too often has been a lethargic offense. Nunez has foot speed and bat speed, two qualities the team certainly can use. His 10 steals are second on the team (Rodriguez leads with 13), but Nunez has just 77 plate appearances.
So, Girardi probably has to hope Nunez does not kill the Yankees in the field. What will be interesting is if Jeter is able to return to play shortstop, what Girardi will do with Nunez. The organization — foolishly I believe — restricted Nunez to playing just shortstop after sending him to the minors in mid-May, feeling that learning several positions led to even greater defensive liabilities.
But at this point how does Girardi justify, for example, giving at-bats against lefties to Andruw Jones over Nunez? If you want the cautionary tale about playing Rodriguez too much, then ponder this: At another moment when Girardi responded to an injury crisis by sticking with a hot player not used to playing the field regularly, he asked Jones to play three full games in the field over two days at Fenway Park on July 7-8. Jones hit four homers in those first-half-closing games.
However, Jones has just two homers since and, of the 297 players with at least 100 plate appearances in that span, only Jason Bay (.135) has a worse average than Jones (.139). That is not the company you want to keep. Plus Jones has hit just .143 with a .524 OPS against lefties in the second half. There seems little zip left in his body or bat.
So don’t the Yankees have to seriously consider using Nunez in left field against at least southpaws if (when?) Jeter returns to shortstop, and run some risk of defensive liability?