Derek Jeter's Position in 2011...in the Lineup

Derek Jeter is by most accounts a pretty lousy fielder.  Even the people who have awarded him the Gold Glove on three occasions will admit that Jeter shouldn't be playing SS much longer and often recommend that he switch positions to left field.  They suspect that Jeter's strong arm and knack for going back on the ball would play well in left field. 

"Please don't make me an outfielder!"

I'm not here to deny that logic, if you look at Bill James' defensive spectrum it's pretty easy to see and understand that playing shortstop is harder than left field.  Jeter, like most shortstops, would likely be a better fielder in left.  However, that would hardly make him a better player,  although Jeter is an average fielder at best, shortstop is still the position for him.  Everyone and their grandmother at this point knows that Jeter has had a bad year, but when you compare him to other guys at his position, he's not terrible.  If we use wOBA, which FanGraphs describes as "a linear weight formula presented as a rate statistic scaled to On Base Percentage", to rank hitters you will find that Jeter placed 8th among shortstops.  If you are unfamiliar with wOBA, or just don't like it, Jeter still ranks 10th in OPS, so any way that you want to slice it Jeter is still in the upper half of shortstops when it comes to hitting.  Further, if we look at WAR, which is an all inclusive stat that takes defense into consideration, Jeter still ranks in the upper half at his position.

How could you move
a puppy face like this! 

With that said, lets take a look at how Jeter would rank if he moved to the outfield.  Like we stated earlier, Jeter's .320 wOBA is in the upper half among shortstops, but in the outfield he would rank 55th, between Rajaj Davis and Michael Bourn.  If we just look at left field he would rank 17th between Rajaj Davis and Juan Pierre. While Jeter would likely benefit fielding wise from a move to left field, how good of a fielder could we even exepct him to be?  A guy in his late 30s playing outfield for the first time just doesn't strike me as someone who would be great defensively.  Jeter's bat simply doesn't play in the outfield unless he becomes a great outfielder, and at this point that is unrealistic.  The best position on the field for Jeter remains shortstop, even though he is below-average defensively it's still where Jeter gives the Yankees the best value.

His position in the lineup is another story. The Yankees have a stacked lineup and Derek Jeter may not be worthy of his regular spot atop the lineup next year.  Jeter started to bat leadoff last year because of two reasons:

• He gets on base a lot.  Coming into the season in 2009, Jeter had a career OBA of .387



On second thought, I don't think Jeter
can be too sad coming home to this
(Brett Williams)

• He grounds into a lot of double plays.  

Jeter hasn't stopped grounding into double plays and considering he lead the league this year in GB% and isn't getting any quicker, I imagine this will get worse before it gets better.  So, the same reasoning why he should bat leadoff over 2nd in the lineup will still apply.  As far as that leadoff spot is concerned, the Yankees need Jeter to get on base.  Over his career he's been great at that and still has a career .385 OBA, but this year it slipped all the way down to .340.  That is still above average mind you, but on a team like the Yankees it may not cut it.  Not when they have Brett Gardner (.383 OBA) and Nick Swisher (.359 OBA) as other options.  Also, even though Curtis Granderson isn't an on base machine, he still is a better hitter than Jeter at this point in his career and would it would behoove (Michael Kay h/t) the Yankees to give him more ABs over Jeter.  

What position Jeter will play on the field has been a big topic of discussion but as we have illustrated, that discussion should end with Jeter remaining at shortstop.  The real concern is Jeter's other position, in the lineup.  The Yankees are going to overpay for Jeter next year and that's neither a surprise nor a detriment to a team with the Yankees funds. The real detriment will be if Jeter is batting 1st or 2nd, hitting ball after ball on the ground while being among the league leaders in GIDP at the expense of more capable hitters.  Jeter will likely be too proud to take a large pay cut, it will be interesting to see if he's too proud to move down the Yankee lineup, a position where he may belong.