TAMPA — The youngest Yankees are spread over the four fields at the team’s minor league complex for pre-spring training workouts. Derek Jeter, the Yankees’ oldest position player, is here, too, just like every other early February for the past 20 years.
It’s the Old Man and the Sea of Prospects.
When Jeter first started coming to spring training early in 1993, there wasn’t even a roof over the batting tunnels. The facility has changed, players have changed, the House of Steinbrenner has changed. But Jeter’s work ethic hasn’t, and that’s what makes him so special. He will turn 38 in June, but once again he is the first player in camp.
Position players officially report Feb. 25, but Jeter doesn’t have time to waste. His baseball clock has started.
“You see all these kids out here now,’’ Jeter told the Post as he looked out over the perfectly manicured fields, where prospects such as infielder Dante Bichette (19) and outfielder Mason Williams (20) were working. “When I first came down here, it was just me. They didn’t do this when I started. I came on my own and I dragged my roommate down with me, R.D. Long. The only people down here were rehabbers. Then they started bringing people down and now they have this.’’
Young shortstop Cito Culver follows Jeter everywhere. He takes ground balls alongside Jeter on a daily basis. Jeter is a baseball godsend for Culver.
“He’s very interested in learning, which is always good,’’ Jeter said of Culver, who was the Yankees’ top pick in 2010. “When I was a young player coming up, I wanted to learn as much as I could. He asks a lot of questions, works hard. He’s got a bright future.’’
Jeter then stepped back and put it all in perspective.
“What is he, 19? I’ve been playing as long as he [has been] alive.’’
Actually, longer. Jeter was signed by the Yankees on June 27, 1992, and began play here in the Gulf Coast League. Culver was born two months later. When you watch the two work side-by-side taking ground balls on the edge of the grass, The Captain is as enthusiastic as The Kid.
There is so much to the Derek Jeter Baseball Manual — Hall of Fame numbers like the 3,088 hits and five world championship rings — but the most impressive thing continues to be his hunger to become a better player each day.
“Things haven’t changed that much in 20 years, he was the first guy out here today,’’ said Gary Denbo, an organizational hitting coach and scout for the Yankees, who was Jeter’s first manager in 1992. “He still prepares himself as well as anyone I’ve ever worked with, and he still has that drive to improve and get better.
“When I had him when he was younger, I was always amazed that he was never satisfied with his performance,’’ Denbo added. “It didn’t matter whether he got hits or didn’t get hits. It was the way it is now, first and foremost about winning ballgames, and secondly it was about doing things the right way.’’
It was Denbo who helped get Jeter’s swing right last summer after Jeter was batting .260 on June 13, when Jeter injured his calf. The ensuing rehab created a pathway of work and improvement that enabled Jeter to stay back on the ball and bat .331 the rest of the way to finish at .297.
“It was an opportunity for him to work on some things when he didn’t have to go out and compete,’’ Denbo said. “Sometimes the competition gets in the way of being able to make adjustments.’’
Jeter said he wants to make sure this season starts off right.
“I feel really good,’’ he said with a little smile. “You make adjustments every year to the program, but for the most part it’s the same. … I’m down here working, trying to pick up where we left off last year when I came back from the injury.’’
Jeter has been hitting in the batting tunnels and will begin hitting on the field tomorrow. He’s not about to make any predictions for the 2012 Yankees.
“Have you ever known me to make a prediction? I feel good about this team,” he said. “We got most of the guys back. The key is to keep guys healthy. … Winning the division is always the priority.’’
He is excited about the trade that brought over right-hander Michael Pineda, 23.
“He’s a big guy and has a great arm, throws hard, has a good slider,” Jeter said. “Not too many times you are going to get guys like that with that much ability. I think he is going to do well. I don’t know him personally, but I do know he has a great arm.’’
Jeter said he is happy for someone he knows personally, another quiet leader, Giants quarterback Eli Manning. Derek and Eli: two elite players who own a combined seven championships.
“I root for people I know,’’ said Jeter, who met Manning when he came to Jeter’s golf tournament early in the quarterback’s career. “I’m happy for Eli. He had a great [Super Bowl], a great year, really. He’s done a tremendous job in handling himself in New York. He seems like he is always even keeled. It doesn’t seem like he gets flustered by too many things.’’
Kind of reminds you of a certain shortstop.
“Everyone always tries to compare people,’’ Jeter said. “Let Eli be Eli. He’s very successful being himself. He’s done great. It’s not easy to play in New York with the expectations that come along with it. He’s handled himself well.’’
The Core Four is down to the Core Two: Jeter and Mariano Rivera. It won’t be long before Jeter is the last one standing. How different is it going to be now that his close friend Jorge Posada has retired? Who is Jeter going to hang with on the team?
“I do spend time with other guys, different people, not just Jorge,’’ Jeter said. “It’s just that we’ve been together for so long, you’re used to seeing us, us two and other people. The other people have changed. Everybody thinks it’s just me and Jorge, but I spend time with everybody.’’
One final question is tossed his way. Has it gone fast?
Jeter smiled and said, “Yeah, it has.
It has gone real fast.’’
Yet, there still is so much work to be done and no time to waste.
kevin.kernan@nyppost.com