Joel Sherman

Joel Sherman

MLB

Girardi is Yankees’ bridge from old to new era

TAMPA — There is a sense of the end right at the beginning of this Yankees season. Derek Jeter assured that by announcing he was retiring following the 2014 campaign, just days before pitchers and catchers and hopes and dreams were unwrapped at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

It feels so much bigger because not only is a great career is winding down, but so are the final vestiges from this brilliant era for this organization.

Slowly, it has peeled away. O’Neill and Tino, Bernie and Torre, Posada, Pettitte and Rivera. Now the face of the group — Jeter — will take his final lap.

Whether by heady design or the fortunate alignment of moons, the Yankees assembled a group not only talented, but durable, team oriented and professional. In a time when advanced metric jihadists pooh-pooh such items, qualities beyond skill have helped buoy the Yankees the past 20 years — the consistency of attitude, temperament and work ethic mattering when a group must perform daily, live with each other without break for 8-9 months.

In 2012, the Yankees never seemed to play well, yet won 95 games and the AL East. In 2013, they fielded Triple-A-esque lineups and won 85 games. The culture has sustained them, been part of the DNA that keeps the winning coming no matter what.

Buck Showalter has said for years the greatest pain the Yankees will feel as a franchise is when this core group is gone, when the lieutenants who demand and defend the standards vanish. And now Jeter is on the launching pad in a season that already was setting up as the largest baton pass in the history of the organization.

“I do believe as a manager that this is the biggest transition I have been through,” Joe Girardi acknowledged.

He noted the strong likelihood of not having one player in the same position on Opening Day 2014 as was there in 2013, unless injury is a plague again and Brett Gardner is back in center, Eduardo Nunez at short, Ichiro Suzuki in right and Francisco Cervelli behind the plate.

Girardi said he is not feeling pressure, but that there is a need to learn so many new players in a short period. Especially because the standard remains same as ever. Once Hal Steinbrenner tossed away $189 million aspirations and invested a half a billion dollars in free agency, the championship-or-bust credo remained. There would be not even a one-year pit stop to get payroll in order.

Thus, even in Jeter’s farewell tour, Girardi becomes more important than ever. For in 2014 and beyond, he will be the link to this recent glorious past, the one most responsible for maintaining the Yankee Way. He must keep the standards and win totals high.

He received quite a bit of credit last year for steering 75-win capability to that 85-win season and borderline contention. He was honored with a four-year extension, and his owners kept right on spending to give him a winning chance this season. Yet, with all the money laid out, Girardi met the media Friday — report day — to face a sizable buffet table of questions, particularly considering how much was spent to come up with answers in the offseason.

In no particular of order of importance, how will Jeter play approaching 40 after losing most of last year to devastating ankle problems, and how will Girardi handle him — in the field, in the batting order – if his performance wilts, especially with so much of this season now set up as a farewell celebration for the captain?

How will Mark Teixeira recover from wrist surgery? Do the Yankees even have a starting second baseman and third baseman with Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez gone? Can David Robertson handle being Rivera’s successor and do the Yankees have enough talent overall in their bullpen? Is Masahiro Tanaka a key to success or a Kei to failure? Can CC Sabathia — so many miles on his arm — rebound from his worst season? Is Michael Pineda ever going to be a factor? How will Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian McCann transition to pinstripes? Will the A-Rod sideshow revisit the club at some point?

It is a full menu in this bridge season from what has been for the Yankees to, well, to wherever they are now heading. Yet in this season of change, the song remains the same. Girardi must navigate the Yankees to October, win now all while ushering in a new tomorrow fueled by yesterday.