TAMPA – Derek Jeter’s farewell tour in essence begins Wednesday when he reports to his final spring training and then publicly addresses his retirement for the first time since his Facebook revelation.
Thus will begin a season of pomp and circumstance for a player who has earned the distinction. But it also needs to be a season of health and hits for the Yankees.
The dream blueprint was established in 2013 by Mariano Rivera. He missed most of the previous season to a devastating injury (knee), announced his retirement in spring and then had a sendoff campaign befitting his career – which is to say, superb.
Jeter missed almost all of last season, mainly due to the lingering impact of fracturing his ankle. Word so far – from him and key organizational members – is he is moving and feeling well. Let’s face it, since Jeter might be the third-biggest health worry in the Yankees infield behind Mark Teixeira (wrist) and injury-prone Brian Roberts, the organization badly needs him to approximate his career output: plenty of games played, scads of hits.
However, what are the odds of that? He turns 40 in June. His range/mobility was a pre-ankle-injury concern.
Actually, this is part of a larger issue: What are the odds this infield works? Particularly when injury worries exist at three positions and the starting third baseman, Kelly Johnson, has started 12 games at third in his major league career – in none of which did he conjure the image of Brooks Robinson.
What if you can see the tidal wave coming out of the ocean and can clear the city before lives are lost rather than waiting to see if — as it almost certainly will — it strikes land and try to evacuate then?
In Stephen Drew, there remains a preemptive option to potentially mitigate disaster.
Drew has never played third base, but I have little doubt — sight unseen — his shortstop skill set assures he would be better at it than Johnson. I know the Yankees think he can play third because after the 2012 season they offered him a one-year contract to do just that, he said no and went to Boston and the Yanks signed Kevin Youkilis.
Also, by having Drew at third, the Yankees would have a high-end insurance policy for Jeter. In that scenario, Johnson returns to what he does best – being a jack of all trades, which has stronger value with so much uncertainty around the infield.
Early in the offseason, the Yankees – with so many holes to fill – used a strategy of making many offers at one time, letting agents know that with each signing, they would re-assess and pull some bids. The Yankees actually made Drew an offer at that time, believed to be for two or three years, when the shortstop was still looking to do considerably better – four or five years.
And, as it happened, the Yankees spent more than they anticipated on players such as Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Masahiro Tanaka and, at some point, rescinded the offer for Drew. And once Tanaka was signed and the $189 million dream was crushed, Hal Steinbrenner put a clamp on going any further. That means they are not bending for Drew, a decision they believe is made a tad easier because they were worried about the condition of his ankles and hips anyway.
At this moment, though, Drew seems a good risk, particularly because he played healthy and well last year for the champion Red Sox. His request is down to two years with an opt-out after one.
And here is the thing: The Yanks are going to spend now or later to address this infield. As Steinbrenner showed last year, when a plague of injuries made even playoff hopes dim, he still authorized spending on players such as Vernon Wells and Alfonso Soriano because it is not in his family’s playbook to surrender on a season. So no matter how he feels today, Steinbrenner certainly is not going to give up after okaying a half billion dollars in spending this offseason. The Yanks are in go-for-it mode – fully.
But when the inevitable occurs, a player like Drew might not be available and what is available is going to cost more than money and the 55th pick (which is what the Yankees would lose if they signed a qualifying-offer free agent such as Drew). It will cost prospects, too, and the Yankees will be challenged to land, say, Cleveland’s Asdrubal Cabrera or Arizona’s Didi Gregorius.
Yet when posed with this scenario in an email, Steinbrenner responded: “No team is without concerns. We will address those concerns as we go, just as we did in several areas last year. … I am comfortable with our payroll as it stands now. Tanaka put us way over the $189 million, but I believe it will prove to be a solid investment. The rest of the pieces we will figure out as we go — just as all other teams do. We have a very good club and we will continue to improve in areas that we see need it; not just in areas that need it on paper. We need to see what actually transpires in those areas and react.”
That strategy brings us back to Jeter and the long road of his final season. With so much infield uncertainty, Jeter has to make his last season like pretty much all those that came before – he is a solution, not a question.