With Derek Jeter Day coming up on Sunday, YES Network analyst Ken Singleton discussed the Captain and the Yankees’ fading playoff hopes with The Post’s Justin Terranova.
Q: What’s the biggest reason this season looks likely to an end without the playoffs?
A: Yankees fans are used to this team scoring 800-900 runs, and this team is in the bottom third of the league. The guys they’ve brought into the pitching staff have done a pretty good job, but it’s hard to pitch when every single throw feels like it could potentially lose the game.
Q: Should the Yankees drop Derek Jeter out of the No. 2 hole?
A: Particularly coming off a not very good August, you start getting questions like this. But when they were successful this season, he was batting second. So, it’s a very tough call for Joe Girardi. I don’t see it happening. It might cause more problems than it solves. It’s not as if he’s the only one not hitting.
Q: How do you think he’s handled the attention this year?
A: This is not who he is. I don’t think he’s particularly comfortable with all of this, but it’s something he’s going to have to endure. Once you announce this is going to be your last year, I imagine he would expect this would be the treatment from around baseball. He has been the face of baseball for the past 15 years. He might be growing tired of these press conferences, but he only has a couple more.
Q: Any particular Derek Jeter moment stand out?
A: The thing that stands out for me — we all know what he’s done on the field — was his speech when they closed out the old Yankee Stadium. I thought that was very heartfelt, it didn’t seem to be rehearsed or anything and it was brilliant. It was a fitting way to close it out. For baseball players I admire I look for what they do off the field. There are plenty of players who are great on the field, but I don’t really admire some of the things that they’ve done.
Q: You played 10 years for the Orioles. Do you get any joy from their success this year?
A: I don’t care about the Baltimore Orioles until the Yankees play them. That’s true with every team. I look at it analytically. Right now the Orioles are having a great year under Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette. They’ve done a good job of changing the culture of the team. They are more like the team I used to play for in Baltimore. And Buck is a lot like Earl Weaver without all the profanity. Yankees fans know I played for the Orioles, but they also know I grew up in New York.