Is Jeter a Liability for the Yankees?
The Baltimore Orioles have won the AL East and the New York Yankees are falling out of the wild card race. Due to the whole Derek Jeter goodbye tour, the Yankees continue to play the struggling star despite his lack of production. Jeter has been a liability for the Yankees the entire second half of the season.
Jeter is only hitting .250 with four home runs while batting in the number two hole for the team. Clearly those are extremely low numbers for a number two hitter in the AL East and a big reason the Yankees have struggled to score runs.
Jeter’s defense has been solid when the ball has been hit to him but his range just has not been there the past few seasons. Playing the old, struggling Jeter has been a disadvantage for the Yankees as they try to send him off the right way. Joe Girdardi likes to blame everyone but himself when it comes to his team losing but I wonder if the Yankees would have given the Orioles a little more trouble and been more competitive if they had gotten a better short stop.
