The 26 Greatest Yankees Starting Shortstops of the Derek Jeter Era
In the ultimate tribute, The Captain ends up at No. 2.
As Derek Jeter’s career comes to a close, many have debated where he stands among the greatest Yankees and greatest players of all-time.
But if you’ve seen any coverage of Jeter, you have heard that he is the consummate teammate. And the fact is, Jeter is just one of 26 players who have started at shortstop since the “Derek Jeter Era” began in 2006.
Before we decide Jeter’s place in baseball history or Yankees history, we must first determine where he ranks among the greatest Yankees starting shortstops of the Derek Jeter Era.
#26 — Miguel Cairo (14 games started at SS, 2004–2007)
6-for-49 / .122 — 0 HR — 1 RBI / 5–9 (.357 winning percentage)
RE2PECT This: Cairo no doubt earned Derek Jeter some MVP votes all by himself, as the Yankees were horrible with Cairo as their starting shortstop.
Post-Yankees Career: Cairo stuck in the majors through the 2012 season, playing 17 total major league seasons with nine different teams … yet he never won a ring. It’s time someone says the hard truth: Miguel Cairo was no Derek Jeter.
How He Will Be Remembered: As a guy who disappointed 14 stadiums of fans who came to watch Derek Jeter play baseball between 2004 and 2007.
#25 — Nick Green (3 games started at SS, 2006)
1-for-8 / .125 — 0 HR — 0 RBI / 1–2 (.333 winning percentage)
RE2PECT This: Green played 104 games with the rival Red Sox in 2009, but stayed loyal to the Yankees by being completely unproductive.
Post-Yankees Career: Green bounced around the majors for several years after his stint in New York, ending his major league career with the Marlins in 2012 and 2013 (or before that with the Dodgers, if you don’t consider the Marlins to be a major league franchise).
How He Will Be Remembered: As a guy who made the Top 25 of Greatest Yankees Starting Shortstops of the Derek Jeter Era.
#24 — Alfonso Soriano (5 games started at SS, 1999–2000)
3-for-21 / .143 — 0 HR — 0 RBI / 1–4 (.200 winning percentage)
RE2PECT This: Soriano was faster than Jeter and hit for more power. He could have created a real controversy had he dazzled at shortstop while Jeter was on the bench. But he did not. He played quite terribly, in fact, allowing Jeter to remain at the position for another 14 years.
#23 — Clay Bellinger (5 games started at SS, 2000)
1-for-11 / .143 — 0 HR — 0 RBI / 1–4 (.200 winning percentage)
Post-Yankees Career: Today Bellinger serves as a volunteer firefighter for the Gilbert (AZ) Fire Department. Maybe he can save us if the Jeter hot takes set to be unleashed in the coming days explode into a dangerous inferno.
#22 — Reid Brignac (12 games started at SS, 2013)
5-for-41 / .122 — 0 HR — 0 RBI / 4–8 (.333 winning percentage)
RE2PECT This: Brignac, a .222 career major league hitter who makes close to the league minimum, has a child with a Playboy Playmate. Derek Jeter is a ridiculously wealthy first ballot Hall of Famer who has managed to remain unattached to dozens (scores?) of models. It’s players like Brignac that allow us all to appreciate Jeter’s true career accomplishment.
#21 — Stephen Drew (6 games started at SS, 2014)
2-for-19 / .105 — 0 HR — 1 RBI / 3–3 (.500 winning percentage)
How He Will Be Remembered: As another one of Brian Cashman’s disastrous acquisitions / Derek Jeter’s full-time successor in 2015? / Maybe a good reason for the Yankees to just close down their franchise for good after this season.
#20 — Felix Escalona (4 games started at SS, 2004–2005)
1-for-13 / .077 — 0 HR — 0 RBI / 2–2 (.500 winning percentage)
Post-Yankees Career: Escalona’s professional baseball career soon ended after his stint with the Yankees, but not before a brief stint with the Ottawa Rapidz. Which really makes you think: if the Yankees think RE2PECT is cool, changing the team’s name to “Yankeez” would totes appeal to dat youth demo! [wild guitar riff with rad graphics]
#19 — Cody Ransom (8 games started at SS, 2008–2009)
2-for-21 / .095 — 0 HR — 0 RBI / 4–4 (.500 winning percentage)
How He Will Be Remembered: As the guy who was the Yankees starting third baseman to open the 2009 season, providing New York with a more likeable, but wildly less productive, replacement for Alex Rodriguez.
#18 — Rey Sanchez (4 games started at SS, 1997–2005)
2-for-14 / .143 — 0 HR — 0 RBI / 2–2 (.500 winning percentage)
RE2PECT: Sanchez was actually a productive role player for the Yankees in his two different stints in town in 1997 and 2005. But he knew not to show up Jeter by playing well at shortstop. Have to REYspect* that.
* This will be my final column for The Cauldron, as I will no doubt be getting a lucrative job writing ads for Nike now.
#17— Yangervis Solarte (1 game started at SS, 2014)
0-for-3 / .000 — 0 HR — 0 RBI / 1–0 (1.000 winning percentage)
RE2PECT: Solarte is the all-time MLB leader in hits by people named Yangervis. Not everyone can be Derek Jeter, but everyone can try to honor him by achieving things in their own way.
Post-Yankees Career: Solarte was traded to the Padres in July 2014, allowing him to watch and learn from another shortstopping legend in Alexi Amarista.
How He Will Be Remembered: As a random collection of letters who started a game at shortstop for the Yankees once.
#16 — Alex Arias (1 game started at SS, 2002)
o-for-4 / .000 — 0 HR — 0 RBI / 1–0 (1.000 winning percentage)
RE2PECT: Arias’ career ended in similar storybook fashion as Jeter’s has/will (I’m assuming he’ll hit a ball so hard off the Green Monster that it will collapse in a pile of green dust). Arias was born and raised in New York and ended his MLB career as a Yankee in 2002. That has to be a dream, outside of the part where he only appeared in six total games and went 0-for-7.
#15 — Dean Anna (5 games started at SS, 2014)
2-for-16 / .125 — 0 HR — 1 RBI / 4–1 (.800 winning percentage)
RE2PECT This: Anna played five games in Jeter’s final season and didn’t attempt to upstage Jeets by playing well.
Post-Yankees Career: Anna was released by the Yankees in early July 2014 and claimed by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who assigned him to Triple-A. There he hit .235, apparently not wanting to upstage the regular Indianapolis Indians shortstop either.
How He Will Be Remembered: As the Jeter backup with the last name that likely reminded Jeter of some girls he slept with.
#14 — Brendan Ryan (34 games started at SS, 2013–2014)
22-for-114 / .193 — 1 HR — 3 RBI / 18–16 (.529 winning percentage)
RE2PECT: Ryan is considered to be a fine defensive shortstop, but he doesn’t brag about it a lot because there are people in the clubhouse who don’t have that particular skill and it would be rude, okay?
#13 — Andy Fox (5 games started at SS, 1996–1997)
3-for-14 / .214 — 0 HR — RBI / 4–1 (.800 winning percentage)
Post-Yankees Career: Fox played for the Diamondbacks in 1998 and set a franchise record for getting hit by a pitch with 18. Clearly, he was punishing himself for not performing better for baseball’s most important franchise.
#12 — Jayson Nix (56 games started at SS, 2012–2013)
44-for-193 / .228 — 4 HR — 19 RBI / 32–24 (.571 winning percentage)
RE2SPECT This: In 2012, Nix hit a batting practice fly ball that Mariano Rivera attempted to run down, only to tear his ACL. Nix knew better than to do this to Derek Jeter.
#11 — Ramiro Pena (23 games started at SS, 2009–2012)
20-for-80 / .250 — 1 HR — 8 RBI / 11–12 (.478 winning percentage)
Post-Yankees Career: Today, Pena is the backup for Andrelton Simmons in Atlanta. Simmons is a fine player, but he’ll never be able to make Pena laugh like Jeets could.
#10 — Enrique Wilson (31 games started at SS, 2001–2004)
22-for-110 / .200 — 2 HR — 6 RBI / 19–12 (.613 winning percentage)
RE2PECT: Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez missed a game with a “sore throat” in 2003, but it was later determined he had been partying the night before with Wilson. If it’s stuff that doesn’t show up in the box score that made Jeter great, Wilson was in his league.
#9 — Luis Cruz (5 games started at SS, 2013)
5-for-19 / .263 — 0 HR — 2 RBI / 3–2 (.600 winning percentage)
How He Will Be Remembered: As the second-greatest Yankees starting shortstop named “Luis” during the Derek Jeter Era, behind only Luis Sojo.
#8 — Wilson Delgado (3 games started as SS, 2000)
4-for-12 / .333 — 1 HR — 1 RBI / 2–1 (.667 winning percentage)
How He Will Be Remembered: As a tainted player. Delgado put up very good numbers in his three games filling in for Jeter, but in 2005 he was suspended for 30 games for using PEDs. You have to think he may have only gone 3-for-12 instead of 4-for-12 without help from chemicals. It’s a shame we have to question his legacy.
# 7 — Jerry Hairston (2 games started at SS, 2009)
2-for-3 / .667 — 0 HR — 1 RBI / 1–1 (.500 winning percentage)
RE2PECT: At .667, Hairston had the highest average of any starting shortstop on the 2009 World Series champion Yankees. Yet he didn’t demand to start ahead of Jeter in the playoffs.
#6 — Alberto Gonzalez (12 games started at SS, 2007–2013)
11-for-36 / .306 — 0 HR — 4 RBI / 6–6 (.500 winning percentage)
How He Will Be Remembered: As a piece the Yankees acquired in the Randy Johnson deal. New York sent Johnson to Arizona, and the Yankees got Gonzalez, Ross Ohlendorf, Luis Vizcaino, and Steven Jackson. Great job, as always, Brian Cashman!
#5 — Eduardo Nunez (124 games started at SS, 2010–2013)
113-for-432 / .262 — 4 HR — 40 RBI / 75–49 (.605 winning percentage)
How He Will Be Remembered: As the heir to Jeter’s throne. When the Yankees signed Nunez in 2004, they touted him as Jeter’s eventual replacement. Today, Nunez is a reserve infielder for the Twins. Great job, as always, Brian Cashman!
#4 — Wilson Betemit (8 games started at SS, 2007–2008)
9-for-28 / .321 — 1 HR — 10 RBI / 3–5 (.375 winning percentage)
RE2PECT This: Betemit joined the Yankees in 2007 and hit a home run in his first Yankees at-bat — in the very same game he was playing in place of Jeter. He received a curtain call from Yankees fans for the feat. Getting a dramatic hit and receiving fan adoration while playing shortstop for the Yankees? Betemit may be the finest impressionist of our times.
#3 — Erick Almonte (29 games started at SS, 2003)
26–for-98 / .265 — 1 HR — 11 RBI / 20–9 (.690 winning percentage)
RE2PECT This: Almonte was a winner, plain and simple. The Yankees went 20–9 with him in the lineup, which projects to a 111–51 record over a full season. Peculiarly, the Yankees cut Almonte after the season. Was it because Jeter felt threatened by Almonte’s success? Let’s say “yes” and see if we can start a baseless rumor.
Post-Yankees Career: Almonte played for the Nippon Ham Fighters, among other teams, but none nearly as fun to write as the Nippon Ham Fighters.
How He Will Be Remembered: As the MLB player lots of people probably think is that cheating Little League kid.
#2 — Derek Jeter (lots of games started at SS, 1995–2014)
RE2PECT This: Despite being very humble, Jeter has allowed teams the honor to present him with gifts in pregame ceremonies at stadiums across the country for the past six months. Truly selfless.
Post-Yankees Career: Possibly doing something tangible with your sister or girlfriend.
How He Will Be Remembered: You know how the mainstream coverage of Jeter says he was flawless as a baseball player? This will increase exponentially over time.
#1 — Luis Sojo (22 games started at SS, 1996–2001)
25-for-103 / .243 — 1 HR — 9 RBI / 16–6 (.727 winning percentage)
RE2PECT This: Jeter diehards like to argue that his true talent is found not in stats or personal accomplishments, but in the little things he did to help his team win. Fine. I’ll accept that, as long as you accept this: the Yankees were essentially unbeatable with Sojo in the lineup (.727 winning percentage, which would result in a 120–42 record for a full season, a mark Jeter never approached.). Sojo also has as many World Series rings as Jeter (despite playing seven fewer seasons), but he won one of his with a different team, the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993, proving he could win even away from the big Yankee payroll. Forget Derek Jeter. Is Luis Sojo the greatest leader in the history of baseball?
Post-Yankees Career: Sojo did some coaching at various levels of baseball, but he probably mainly sat slumped in a chair, sighing and watching the rudderless, Sojo-less Yankees win just one championship in the 13 years since he left the team.
How He Will Be Remembered: If not as the Greatest Yankees Starting Shortstop of the Derek Jeter Era, then probably as his Wikipedia page rather rudely describe him, “not classically athletic.”
