Before Derek Jeter, the New York Yankees Were in Trouble at Shortstop

The years that spanned the period between Bucky Dent and Derek Jeter were lean ones for the New York Yankees as far as shortstops went. The New York Yankees had a total of 10 different players playing shortstop on Opening Day in the 13-year span between Dent's last year with the club, 1983, and Jeter taking over the position in 1996. None of these players were the answer at the position that had been troublesome for the Yankees to fill since the retirement of Tony Kubek in 1965, with one flop after another at the position.

To truly appreciate Jeter, who is on his way to becoming the only Yankee to ever garner 3,000 hits, you must look at his predecessors. After Dent was traded to the Rangers for Lee Mazzilli in 1982, Roy Smalley was brought in to fill the hole. Smalley was an offensive upgrade over Dent, but his range at shortstop had shrunken considerably. Smalley was shipped out the next year and Tim Foli was obtained to play short. However, he couldn't hit, finishing the year with no homers and just 16 RBI, so prospect Bobby Meachem was handed the job.

Meachem would clobber 8 homers, but it took him 6 seasons to do so, mostly in a utility role, as he was another in a long line of New York Yankee prospects that didn't pan out. He struck out 102 times in 1985 alone and was eventually replaced by Wayne Tolleson in 1987, a player that hit all of one home run that year to go with his .221 batting average. Tolleson became a utility player like Meachem, while the Yankees grabbed up Rafael Santana to play shortstop from the cross-town Mets.

Santana also failed to deliver, batting .240 with 38 runs batted in during his one year with the squad. Alvaro Espinosa took over shortstop by default, but in 3 years he made 60 errors and knocked in a paltry 94 runs. This began a parade of ineptitude at the position, starting with Randy Velarde in 1992, Spike Owen in '93, Mike Gallego in '94, and finally Tony Fernandez in '95, who was on the down side of a decent career, and incidentally the last Yankee to hit for the cycle.

Jeter came along at the end of 1995 and took over in '96, missing only one Opening Day start with an injury since, in 2001. Derek's worst year, an injury-shortened 2003 campaign, would have been by far the best of any of the men who toiled at shortstop before his arrival since Dent, as he hit .324 with 10 home runs and 52 RBI. Jeter has averaged 122 runs scored, 17 homers, and 82 runs batted in to go with his .317 career batting average, so superior to the combined best numbers of the 10 that came before him as to be ridiculous to even make the comparison. He needs 64 base hits to reach the coveted 3,000 plateau that no Yankee thus far has ever cleared, an average of 161 a season for the next 4 years. Jeter is still only 33, has eclipsed 200 hits in a single season 6 times in what will be a first ballot Hall of Fame career, and is a .309 hitter in 25 post-season series. When he finally does retire, Yankee fans need to hope that his replacement is not the first in a long line of second stringers, as was the case before he took over at shortstop.

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