Maybe this will work. Or maybe it will turn into one of the most bizarre chapters in the history of baseball.
Unlike the Texas Rangers’ acquisition of Alex Rodriguez three last-place seasons ago, the New York Yankees’ addition of baseball’s best player has a chance to pay immediate dividends.
But when the marriage of the richest team and player began for real Tuesday at Legends Field, with maybe 1,500 fans squealing as the Yankees’ armada of eight-figure hitters took their turns in the batting cage, there was a surprising sense of sadness to the occasion.
Listen carefully to how Derek Jeter described his first infield practice working alongside Rodriguez.
“It was awkward,” Jeter said. “We’ve been on the same field before at All-Star Games but never as [real] teammates. I think it’s going to be awkward for a while. It’s going to be a while before we’re used to it.”
Rodriguez, a good soldier, fielded both ground balls and questions about his move to third base. He didn’t complain about his position change or switching from his familiar No. 3 to 13, the former having been retired in honor of Babe Ruth. He vowed to sacrifice himself for his new team.
But with his presence alone, Rodriguez spoke volumes. He is in New York because the last three teams constructed around one of the greatest Yankees ever, the elegant shortstop, Jeter, failed to win the World Series.
“Since I’ve been here, when we’ve lost [in the postseason], we’ve had changes the next year,” Jeter said. “We had changes after 1997. We had changes after 2001, 2002 and now we’ve changed again. I guess if we want to stay intact, we have to win.”
The Yankees’ “punishment” this time is to have Rodriguez foisted upon them on the eve of spring training, causing their already unreal level of expectations growing higher. Many will think anything short of 110 victories and a championship is a failure, any three-game losing streak is unforgivable, but Jeter and his teammates know better.
Rodriguez may have boosted the Yankees’ payroll to almost $200 million, arriving as he did in the same winter as Gary Sheffield and Kevin Brown, but he does not come with guarantees.
Well, there is one.
Life in New York never again will be as comfortable for Jeter. He has been the consummate Yankee, earning five All-Star appearances and hitting a career .314 in the postseason, but at 29 he’s older (by 13 months) than Rodriguez.
Both are signed through 2010, when they are due to make a combined $48 million. It’s hard to imagine them staying together for even three years, the same amount of time Rodriguez endured the heat of Texas summers.
The problem is simple: They are both shortstops, both leading men.
Neither Rodriguez nor Jeter ever has played an inning elsewhere. While Rodriguez was willing to move to third base to get out of Texas, you wonder how badly he’ll miss being in the middle of things.
Rodriguez emulated Cal Ripken Jr. growing up, and Ripken didn’t make the switch from short to third base until 1997, when he was 36.
How long can Rodriguez stay off Jeter’s turf? How many grounders get to go up the middle before Brown or another pitcher asks why the better defensive shortstop is playing third base?
This is going to be a tricky situation for Joe Torre, and even trickier for whoever replaces him in a year or two–if not by Memorial Day.
The addition of Rodriguez and Sheffield to a lineup already including Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada is designed to allow the Yankees to bludgeon the improved Boston Red Sox and every other American League team. Those four hitters combined for 157 home runs last season (with Rodriguez leading the AL for the third year in a row).
The best Yankees team of this era, the 1998 team that won 114 regular-season games before going 11-2 in the playoffs, was fourth in the AL with 207 homers. Tino Martinez was team leader with 28.
“Our style of play has changed,” Jeter said. “Back a few years when Knobby (Chuck Knoblauch) was here, [Scott] Brosius was here, we played more small-ball. We weren’t a team that was going to hit very many home runs. Now we have a lot of guys who hit homers.”
In baseball, power can be more seductive than productive. No team has won the World Series with a home run champ in its lineup since Mike Schmidt’s Philadelphia Phillies in 1980. The last team to win it all with a 50-homer man in the lineup was the 1961 Yankees of Maris-Mantle fame.
Pitching, along with heady players like Jeter, is what wins in October. While George Steinbrenner lusts for another championship, he seems to have devalued both of those commodities.
Having lost Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and David Wells, the Yanks could be sunk if any of the top three starters, Mike Mussina, Javier Vazquez and Brown, are injured. They are counting on the emergence of Cuban right-hander Jose Contreras, who looks very good, and a comeback from Jon Lieber, who is having problems with his legs.
Jeter might be right. This could turn out to be awkward.
