It's Time to Shut Jeter Down For the Season

Grimace seems to be Derek Jeter's favorite new expression.

You can't deny Father Time when it comes to recovering from injuries. 39-year old Derek Jeter is finding that out the hard way.

He played on a bad leg in the 2012 post-season, which led to a fractured ankle. In working his way back to try to be ready for opening day this season, Jeter fractured the ankle in another spot.

Ready to come back at last, he strained a quad in his first game of the year. That led to another stint on the 15-day DL. He homered in his first at-bat on the first pitch he saw when he returned on July 26, but after four games he sat out the last two games in San Diego with a right calf strain. While Jeter can continue to maintain his "I'm all right" mantra, his body is telling him otherwise.

An MRI revealed a Grade-1 strain, which could lead to another stint on the DL. Though Grade-1 is the mildest of the possible calf injuries, Jeter sat out June 14-July 3 two years ago with Grade-1 strained calf.
In other words, it's time to shut down Jeter down for the rest of the 2013 season. He'll kick, he'll scream, he'll protest, but it's in his best interest. There's no reason to think the rest of the year won't be just like this...play a little, sit out, rest injuries, etc.

Let Jeter mix rest and mild exercise for the foreseeable future and then over the winter get back to being 100% (or as close as he can get) when Spring Training rolls around. (He'll have to exercise his $8MM option for 2014; he'd be crazy to try to sign a new deal instead.)

The Yankees aren't going anywhere this year, despite being just 4 1/2 games out of the wild card after Phil Hughes got lit up for a change on Sunday and the Yankees lost to the Padres 6-3.

The hope here is that Eduardo Nunez also can raise his game enough to get back some of the trade value he's lost. Though he can't make the mistakes he did on Sunday when he didn't hustle out a double play ball and forgot to cover third on a wheel play.

But enough about Nunez, this s about Jeter and protecting his legacy and the way he leaves the game. When that time comes it should be on two good legs after playing the majority of the season.