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.

Gwen Stefani Has No Doubt And So Does Derek Jeter

Derek Jeter hates injury, talking about injuries, talking to the media at length, not playing baseball, and holding press conferences in which it is clear he would rather be water boarded than answering questions about his state of health and age.

Despite all of that, Jeter sat down prior to Thursday's game to discuss his current status with the Yankees beat writers, national guys, and anyone else who dropped in. The main theme was "I'll be back". There's "No doubt I will be back."

Jeter confirmed that he's frustrated; upset that he had made progress and thought he was on the verge of coming back when a new fracture appeared. He didn't feel he had pushed himself to play on Opening Day, he merely went at the pace the doctors told him to follow. He was also not sure when the new fracture occurred.

He showed some sense of humor when ESPN baseball guy Pedro Gomez asked that if being at an advanced age (for baseball) could affect his rehab. Jeter joked that there were a lot of people in the room at an "andvanced age". Gomez countered with "Yes, but none of us are out there."

Jeter also said if it were up to him he would take a CT scan every day to monitor his progress, though "I don't know how much they cost."

Jeter reminded everyone that when he comes back he will no longer address the injury, because that's not the way he does thing.

Mark Feinsand of the NY Daily News asked if Jeter had a date in mind to return. The Captain said, "Yes, but I'm not telling you."

The shortstop said he was happy to be back around his teammates and he had kept in touch with them while he was rehabbing in Tampa. When queried, he said that Mariano Rivera's comeback from last year's knee injury had no impact on his psyche towards his own comeback.

The Captain also had Eduardo Nunez's back and said he'll do a good job while he's out. Though, with a laugh, he mentioned he didn't have the MLB package and hadn't seen many games.

So now we just wait.