Jeter's time to shine is again upon us
MINNEAPOLIS – Derek Jeter(notes) is going to want something like $20 million a year this offseason to re-sign with the New York Yankees because he is Derek Jeter, and as a testament to the power of his name and persona, the Yankees happily will oblige. Never will a fading ballplayer have been paid so disproportionately for the wattage of his smile over the might of his bat, more than half-a-million per famous tooth.
Such is the reality the Yankees face as Jeter comes off the worst season of his career: Their most iconic player since Mickey Mantle looks irreversibly past his prime, and they are forever wedded to him, price be damned. Hey, no one ever said love was cheap.
For $20 million a year, however, they need something quantifiable, something beyond intangibles and leadership and bleached bicuspids. And starting Wednesday at 8:37 p.m. ET, when the Yankees begin their American League Division Series against the Minnesota Twins, Jeter can give them just that.
If he's going to demand superstar pay in his twilight, when two out of every three balls he hits are on the ground, and when he's swinging at more outside pitches and fewer inside the strike zone, and when he's a virtual corpse – an effort-filled corpse but cadaverly nonetheless – at shortstop … well, he damn sure better produce in October.
"I don't have no problem doing it," Jeter said after the Yankees' workout at Target Field, and he said it without an iota of hubris. He believes he will produce this postseason because that is what he does: produce in the postseason.
Don't be fooled by the near-identical lines he has put up in the regular season (.314 batting average, .385 on-base percentage, .452 slugging percentage) and postseason (.313/.383/.479) that would seem to spit on his playoff prowess. Not only does Jeter face the best teams in baseball during October, he does so burdened with his past accomplishments setting a standard incredibly difficult to achieve with such small samples.
"People say he's such a great clutch performer," Yankees designated hitter Lance Berkman(notes) said. "Really, all he does is hit his career average in the postseason. And that, to me, is clutch, because everything is so magnified, so pressure-filled, and he still does the same thing."
If Jeter happens to do the same thing this postseason as he did this regular season, the Yankees are in trouble. His .270 batting average was his lowest since he hit .250 in 48 at-bats as a 21-year-old. Same for his .340 on-base percentage. And never has his bat been so feckless, a .370 slugging percentage borne of all those weak ground balls.
[Photos: More of Yankees slugger Derek Jeter]
Jeter is 36, and the relationship between shortstops aging and producing is inverse. Only three shortstops in history have posted an adjusted OPS better than league average after their 37th birthday: Honus Wagner, Luke Appling and Ozzie Smith. All three are Hall of Famers, of course, and Jeter's enshrinement in Cooperstown would be a no-brainer even if he didn't have a fistful of rings, so there is precedent.
After all, a year ago Jeter was coming off arguably his second-best season. He looked revitalized at the plate and in the field. He paused the clock for an entire year, only to see it restart this season and go twice as fast.
And still, he's Derek Jeter, so he's held in reverence in others' clubhouses as well as his own. Nobody speaks an ill word of Jeter even if they do see his bat losing virility.
"Same guy," said Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano(notes), and he probably believes it. Respect is an important tenet of baseball, and the fashion in which Jeter comports himself, along with the reputation that trails him, carries over to how people treat him like he's a decade younger, his wrists a decade quicker.
"He's here. He's holding a bat in his hands. He can beat me," Twins reliever Matt Capps(notes) said. "You have to respect what he's done and what he's capable of doing."
He did beat the Twins with a home run earlier this season, the lone salvo in a 1-0 game in late May. That was the last time the Twins saw Jeter. Since that series, his slugging percentage is 173rd of 199 players with at least 300 plate appearances, his on-base percentage 74th, his number of grounded-into-double-play balls second.
Yet all of that has a chance to be moot. This is Derek Jeter's killing season, and he's got plenty to slay. First, any notion that he isn't just over the hill but the mesa, butte and mountain, too. Then the idea that he won't earn that $20 million a year, that it'll be nothing more than a golden parachute.
"Somebody's got to be the catalyst," Berkman said, "and his track record is that it'll be him. Derek is the guy who doesn't let the moment get to him."
His moment is here. It is now. And he'd better bring his bat, because he can't smile his way through it.
