The Futility Infielder

An Opening Day blowout in wintry conditions with the team's marquee signing being booed off the field would have been preferable to what the Yanks experienced on Monday night. Less than three innings into their first ballgame, a season flashed in front of the Yankees' collective eyes at the sight of Derek Jeter writhing in agony, the result of a violent collision at third base with Blue Jays catcher Ken Huckaby.

While several Yankees initially assumed the play had been a dirty one, replays -- as well as the shots of a chastened Huckaby -- dismissed that accusation. Having seen the replay from several angles, I'd say Huckaby's play was overly aggressive, but no more so than Jeter's play. On first base with one out and the infield extremely shifted against Jason Giambi, Jeter tried to take third on an infield grounder. In a headfirst slide, his shoulder met the 205-pound Huckaby's armored and rapidly traveling knee as the catcher leaped to cover third. The results were not pretty.

The preliminary diagnosis is that Jeter separated his left (non-throwing) shoulder and will miss at least six weeks. An orthopedic surgeon quoted in the New York Post (or was that a wino quoted on the subway?) opined that Jeter would need two to four months to return, depending upon whether surgery was required. Baseball Prospectus injury expert Will Carroll was less sanguine in his assessment. Comparing Jeter's injury to various other dislocations (including that suffered by the Padres' Phil Nevin, who is shelved for the year), Carroll wrote, "The outlook is not good. I cannot find a situation where a player was able to come back in-season from this type of injury." But until an MRI can be done to assess the soft tissue damage in Jeter's shoulder, all of this is speculation; that procedure is scheduled for Thursday, when the Yankees hit Tampa.

For the time being, the Yanks say that they'll fill Jeter's spot from within the organization, promoting AAA Columbus shortstop Erick Almonte while using futilityman Enrique Wilson as his caddy. Despite whatever rosy picture the Yankee brass is painting today, neither is likely to hold the position for very long. The former is a 25-year old who's gone from prospect to suspect thanks to a year spent brooding enough to earn a demotion back down to AA. In two tours of Columbus, he's shown flashes of potential (21 homers and a .443 slugging percentage) along with glaring weaknesses (a 4-to-1 K/W ratio last year and 45 errors in 163 games). Overall his AAA numbers (.267/.336/.443) don't herald the next Jeter, Soriano, or even D'Angelo Jiminez. Wilson, if anything, is even more suspect, having aged rapidly enough to justify his Luis Sojo-like set of chins if not the .181/.239/.295 line he posted last year. For years with Cleveland he was touted as a serious prospect, but when his skills are dragged into the harsh light of day it's not a pretty picture. On a good day he's an adequate glove man, but overall he's the living embodiment of the replacement level. Only Joe Torre's foibles at choosing his bench keep him in pinstripes.

The irony is that Jeter's injury serves to highlight just how durable he's been over the course of his major league career. He's averaged 154 games a year over his seven full seasons, with a low of 148 in 2000. The Yanks haven't needed much of a contingency plan in that timespan and have steered their best shortstop prospects (Soriano, Jiminez, Christian Guzman, Bronson Sardinha) to other positions or other teams while settling for the Sojos and Wilsons as backups. In all, they've been without Jeter only 57 times (including Tuesday) with the starts doled out as follows, according to YES Network:

L. Sojo      25

E. Wilson    12

A. Soriano    5

C. Bellinger  5

A. Fox        5

W. Delgado    3

A. Arias      1

R. Sanchez    1

This honor roll of futilitymen hasn't exactly been Jeter-beaters, managing only a .222 average with 2 homers and 9 RBI. The Yanks, however, haven't suffered much in his absence, going 36-21 without him, for a higher winning percentage (.632) than they had with him (651-424, .605). Of course, that's a pretty small sample size for anyone to draw conclusions that Jeter's glove is holding the Yankees back.

The question becomes how disciplined the Yanks can be in handling this situation. Countless middle-infield stopgaps, most of them better than the Yanks' current options, dot the landscape; one Baseball Primer poster even went out of his way to list them. Among the more appealing options are Desi Relaford, Chris Gomez, and Melvin Mora -- guys who won't make you forget Jeter, but could easily make you forget Enrique Whatzisname by the time you finish reading this. Should the Yanks momentarily falter or their shortstops struggle, getting one of these guys for a Grade B prospect is a possible route. Should Jeter's season be shot entirely, look for the Yanks to pursue a high-profile, overpriced glove man, such as (ugh) Neifi Perez or Rey Ordoñez (currently chasing the cycle (!) as I write this).

While it's tough to get excited about these stopgaps, it's probably tougher to see this hampering the Yanks enough to threaten their spot in the postseason. With the addition of Hideki Matsui and the anticipated development of Nick Johnson, the Yanks will score enough to support an offensive cipher in the Jeter-hole. But given the organization's ability to throw money at a problem and Joe Torre's comfort with Experienced Veterans, it's perhaps toughest of all to imagine the Yankees simply standing pat.