MLB

Jeter mum on future with Yankees

HOUSTON— Derek Jeter wasn’t interested in discussing his future when the Yankees season ended Sunday.

“I haven’t even thought about it,” Jeter said after the Yankees’ 5-1, 14-inning win over the Astros.

His season was sidetracked by multiple leg injuries as he tried to come back from the fractured ankle he first suffered during the first game of the ALCS last year.

But with a player’s option worth $9.5 million next season, many others have thought about it — especially since the team is facing a tremendous amount of turnover.

When asked if he expected to be back next season, Jeter replied: “I always expect to be back.”

With the Yankees?

“Come on now,” Jeter said with a laugh. “I told you I’m not going to talk about next year.”

This last year was rough for both Jeter and the Yankees.

“It was memorable because of the festivities for Andy [Pettitte] and Mo [Rivera],” Jeter said. “On the field, it wasn’t memorable. I’d like to forget it.”

And he admitted there was a considerable amount of unknown heading into the winter.

“I don’t know who’s going to be here next year,” Jeter said. “No idea. Managers and coaches are free agents, too… There’s a lot of ifs and questions, who’s coming back, who’s not coming back.”

But it’s not something the Yankees haven’t been through before, according to the shortstop.

“We’ve had questions before,” Jeter said. “There’s been questions most offseasons. There might be a few more this year.”

He’s also not worried about potential spending cuts to get payroll under $189 million next season.

“If you can’t win with $189 million … ” Jeter said. “It’s not like sitting here with a payroll of $50 million. I don’t pay attention to that.”

Despite being limited to only 17 games this year, he intends to have a normal offseason.

“I’m going to start working out here soon,” Jeter said.

Manager Joe Girardi said he thinks Jeter will be on the field in 2014, but how productive he will be largely relies on what he is able to do before spring training.

“I expect him to play and I think he will do everything in his power to get back to the form he was in 2012,” Girardi said of the season when Jeter led the league in hits. “He has an offseason where he wants to gain a lot of strength back in his legs and have a normal offseason. It should be good for him.”