Well, Jeter sure proved some people wrong. The proof is in the pudding. Jeter seemed to turn back the hand of time and ended up having one of, if not the best defensive year of his career in 2009.The biggest drama of the Yankees’ 2007-08 offseason played out publicly and messily with the divorce of Joe Torre.
Joe Girardi took over and Brian Cashman felt it was improper to drop another longrunning drama onto the to-do list of a new manager, especially since the star of this drama was a player as important as Derek Jeter.
After all, it was not just statisticians working at Web sites who felt Jeter’s defense had atrophied to an unacceptable level. While no member of the Yankees family broke a pinstripe commandment — thou shalt not publicly criticize Jeter — it was not much of a secret that his defense was a concern from the executive offices to the clubhouse.
So Cashman took Jeter to dinner in Manhattan and told the Yankees captain that his sideto- side actions must improve. Jeter has an outsized athletic arrogance. He believes in himself completely, which allows him to deftly block out criticism and negativity. This trait enables him to thrive in the cauldron, but also prevents him from seeing personal shortcomings the way others perceive them. Still, to his credit, he agreed to try a new way.
With the Yankees paying the bills, Jeter enlisted Jason Riley, the director of performance at the Athletes Compound in Tampa. Riley formulated a plan to increase Jeter’s first-step quickness, particularly in fielding grounders to his left. Power lifting was diminished, agility — especially in the hips — was empha - sized , weight was lost. The results came slowly at first in 2008 and in a wave last year when Jeter had one of his finest defensive seasons.
“The player Derek is, he took to it and said, ‘Watch, I will prove you wrong,’ ” Cashman said.
Well done Cash.
