Derek Jeter

Derek Sanderson Jeter
(Mr. November, The Captain, Captain Clutch or DJ)

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 3", Weight 195 lb.
High School Kalamazoo Central High School
Debut May 29, 1995
Final Game September 28, 2014
Born June 26, 1974 in Pequannock, NJ USA

Inducted into Hall of Fame in 2020

Biography[edit]

Introduction[edit]

"Now batting for the New York Yankees, No. 2 Derek Jeter, No. 2" - Bob Sheppard

Derek Jeter, who played shortstop for the New York Yankees for twenty seasons with a career .310 batting average, reached the 3,000 hit mark in 2011. He came very close to winning the MVP Award in 2006 when he finished a close second to Justin Morneau, getting 12 first-place votes compared to 15 for Morneau, whose team came from far behind to win the division. A former Rookie of the Year and fourteen-time All-Star, Jeter is in good company since the similarity scores method shows the ten most similar players to Jeter include nine Hall of Famers, although none of them is truly similar, which is the sign of an exceptionally good player. He was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first try in 2020, coming just one vote shy of unanimity.

Early life[edit]

Derek Jeter was born in Pequannock, New Jersey to Charles and Dorothy Jeter; however, most of his childhood was spent in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is of mixed race. Jeter grew up as a Yankee fan, going to Yankee games in the summers that he spent with his grandmother in New Jersey. Jeter was a star baseball player at Kalamazoo Central High School, where he also played basketball, and in 1992 he was named High School Player of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association. Although he received a baseball scholarship to attend the University of Michigan, he followed his dream of playing for the New York Yankees after they drafted him with the 6th pick overall in the 1992 amateur draft. However, after the 1992 Summer League he did attend the University of Michigan.

Pro baseball accomplishments[edit]

Jeter was named Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year as well as Florida State League MVP in 1994 and made his major league debut on May 29, 1995, just a month before turning 21. At the time, he was an injury replacement for incumbent SS Tony Fernandez, and was given an opportunity only after Robert Eenhoorn had failed to impress. He went 0 for 5 in his debut, but hit a reasonable .235 in 13 games before being sent down on June 11th (along with a young pitcher named Mariano Rivera) as the Yankees were in a win-now mode and did not want to go through the growing pains of breaking in a young shortstop. Still, he showed enough talent in that stint and a brief September call-up to be given the chance to replace Fernandez and earn a starting spot on the team in 1996. It didn't take long for the Yankee faithful to take to Jeter, as he earned Rookie of the Year honors by having a solid all-around year in which he hit .314. He saved his best for the postseason, where he batted .361 in 15 playoff games en route to the Yankees' first world title in 18 years. One of Jeter's biggest hits that postseason, a home run he hit in the 8th inning of Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, proved both memorable and controversial. Jeter lined an outside pitch from Baltimore Orioles pitcher Armando Benitez into the right-field seats for a game-tying home run. However, replays clearly showed that 12-year-old Yankee fan Jeffrey Maier reached over the wall into the field of play and caught the ball, thereby depriving Oriole outfielder Tony Tarasco the opportunity of making a play. Despite protests from the Orioles, the home run call was upheld, which allowed the Yankees to tie and eventually win the game in extra innings. It was around this time he got the nickname Captain Intangibles.

During his rookie season the young shortstop gained instant fame and soon became a regular subject in the local newspapers' gossip columns. A highly eligible bachelor in New York with matinee idol looks, his love life became a hot topic among the press, most notably his relationship in 1998 with pop star Mariah Carey. Despite being fiercely protective of his privacy, Jeter's dating status has continued to receive intense coverage. Jeter has been linked romantically to former Miss Universe Lara Dutta, actresses Jordana Brewster, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Alba, and MTV personality Vanessa Minnillo, among others.

Despite all the media attention, Jeter continued to produce on the field. During the Yankees' 1998 campaign in which they won 114 games, he batted .324, led the American League with 127 runs, made his first All-Star appearance, and placed third in the AL MVP voting.

1999 showed more progress, as Jeter reached career highs in batting average, home runs, RBIs and walks, and led the AL in hits with 219. He started that season by reaching base at least once in his first 53 games from the start of the season, a major league record which still stands. During the 2000 season, he was voted the MVP of the 2000 All-Star Game, and then World Series MVP, as the Yankees defeated the New York Mets in the Subway Series.

Yankee superstars A-Rod (left) and Jeter.

From 2004 to 2006 Jeter won the American League Gold Glove Award three consecutive years. In January of 2005, he was voted the best baserunner in baseball by ESPN.com. In 2006 and 2007, Jeter put together a remarkable hitting streak that was barely noticed at the time: over the span of 61 games from August 20, 2006 to the second game of the May 3, 2007 doubleheader, he collected at least one base hit in 59 games, putting together hitting streaks of 25, 14 and 20 games only interrupted by two hitless games. He was thus the first hitter since Joe DiMaggio's record hitting streak of 56 consecutive games in 1941 to come within two games of matching his feat; in fact, no batter other than DiMaggio had hit in 54 of 56 games in the entire 20th Century (a number did in the 19th Century, the last being Ed Delahanty in 1899).

After a disappointing season for both him and the Yankees in 2008, Jeter came back strong in 2009, batting .334 with 212 hits, 27 doubles, 18 homers and 107 runs. He won both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Award at shortstop, then was one of the keys to the Yankees winning their first Championship since 2000. He batted .407 in the World Series as the Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 4 games to 2. During the season, he passed Lou Gehrig for most hits in franchise history. He also had the most hits in history by a shortstop, with 2904 at the end of 2010.

After the 2010 season, he signed another three-year contract with the Yankees, worth $51 million, with an option for a fourth year at $8 million. It was considered at the time that this would retire after the contract's expiration. Asked by reporters about the length of the deal, Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said that he expected Jeter to move to the outfield at some point during that four-year period, but that move never took place. Back in the leadoff spot to start the 2011 season, his quest to be the first Yankee to reach 3000 hits soon became one of the biggest stories in major league baseball, along with talk that he was perhaps slipping, both in terms of batting average and power. With Jeter only 6 hits away from the milestone, he suffered a setback on June 14th, straining a calf muscle and missing three weeks of action. After a short rehabilitation stay with AA Trenton, he was back in the line-up on July 4th. In spite of the time missed, he was voted the starting American League shortstop for the 2011 All-Star Game, his 12th trip to the mid-summer classic, but a few observers pointed out that the Yankees played extremely well without him, going 14-4 and claiming back first place, with Brett Gardner excelling in the lead-off spot and Curtis Granderson staking claim to the number 2 spot. He got hit number 3000 on July 9th with a homer off Tampa Bay's David Price in front of hometown fans, part of a five-hit day. He slowly raised his average after that and was at .299 on August 28th when he reached another milestone. In playing his 2402nd game, he passed Mickey Mantle for most in Yankees history. He finished the season at .297 in 131 games, with 162 hits. Only in 2003, when he was injured on opening day and missed 6 weeks of action as a result, had he played fewer games, leading to speculation that his remarkable durability may be coming to an end at age 37.

Jeter showed no sign of slowing down in 2012, however, as he was named to the All-Star team for the 13th time, while more than ever being the Yankees' on-field leader, with the retirement of Jorge Posada the preceding off-season and an early-season injury to Mariano Rivera. On August 11th, he collected his league-leading 150th hit, making him only the second player after Hank Aaron to collect 150 hits in 17 straight season. A few days later, on August 17th, he hit the 250th homer of his career, a solo shot off Franklin Morales of the Red Sox in a 6 - 4 win over the Yankees' traditional rivals. He finished the year with a .316 average and an AL-leading 216 hits, while scoring 99 runs. The Yankees won another division title, despite being locked in a tight race with the Baltimore Orioles until the last day of the season. He hit .364 as the Yankees defeated the Orioles in five games in the ALDS, but in Game 1 of the ALCS agains the Detroit Tigers on October 13th, he broke his ankle while fielding a ground ball in the 12th inning. Ironically, he had become the first player to collect 200 postseason hits in his career earlier in that game; he was miles ahead of anyone else in baseball history at that point, with retired long-time teammate Bernie Williams a distant second with 128 hits. With him out of the line-up, the Yankees were swept in four games, and he underwent surgery on his ankle on October 20th.

He was back for spring training in 2013 but had to miss a number of games because of discomfort in his ankle, one of a number of injuries that hit the Yankees that spring. Ominously, the Yankees decided on March 21st not to play Jeter in any further spring games, in order to be able to back-date a stint on the disabled list to that date were he not ready to start on Opening Day. But not only did he miss opening day, on April 18th x-rays revealed a new crack in his surgically repaired ankle, and as a result he would not be back until the second half of the season. He only was cleared to begin a rehabilitation assignment in the minors on July 6th, by which point the Yankees had had to scour all over the place to find players to start at shortstop on the big league club, with Eduardo Nunez, Jayson Nix, Reid Brignac, Alberto Gonzalez and Luis Cruz all logging starts at his old position. He made his return to New Yankee Stadium earlier than expected, as after only four minor league games, he was called back on July 11th and inserted in the starting line-up at DH against the Kansas City Royals. CF Brett Gardner and DH Travis Hafner had both been injured in the previous night's game, prompting the change of plans. Batting second, Jeter singled on the first pitch he saw from Ervin Santana and came in to score. He later added an RBI in going 1 for 4, but had to leave after the 5th inning with a tight quad muscle, an injury that forced him to sit out until the end of the All-Star break and then placed him back on the disabled list retroactive to July 12th. He was back in the line-up on July 28th and - lo and behold - he homered on the first pitch by Rays starter Matt Moore as the slumping Yankees won, 6-5. But after playing only four games, he aggravated a calf strain in what was becoming an increasingly frustrating season. He told reporters on August 4th: "It's been terrible. It's been like a nightmare. The whole season has been a nightmare." Indeed, he was placed on the DL the next day and did not play again that year, finishing at .190/.288/.254 in only 17 games.

Heading into spring training in 2014, Jeter announced on February 12th that the season would be his last one. He managed to stay healthy during the spring although he only hit .137, and was the starting shortstop on Opening Day, against the Houston Astros on April 1st. He went 1 for 3 and scored a run from his familiar second spot in the line-up, but the Yankees lost, 6-2. He turned 40 in late June, bringing focus on the fact that his seasonal numbers were rather poor, as he seemed headed for his lowest batting average for a full season, with a slugging percentage slightly above .300. With the AL East up for grabs, some commentators even dared to ask the unthinkable question: should the Yankees play Jeter less in order to get more production from his position? In spite of his struggles, he was voted as the starting shortstop for the American League in the 2014 All-Star Game, his 14th All-Star selection. He was only the third player over 40 to start an All-Star game, following Willie Mays (in 1971) and Pete Rose (in 1981). He notched another milestone on July 22nd when he passed Lou Gehrig as the all-time doubles leader with the Yankees, hitting #535. On September 7th, the Yankees held a special day in his honor at New Yankee Stadium, featuring a 45-minute pre-game ceremony and special appearances by Hall of Famer Cal Ripken and NBA great Michael Jordan. One of the unmistakable signs that Jeter was not producing at his customary level in his final year was that he only hit his first homer in his home ballpark on September 18th, waiting for his team's final homestand to do so. On September 23rd, he was presented with the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award by Bud Selig himself, being only the 15th person to be so honored, and joining long-time teammate Mariano Rivera who had received the award a year earlier. He ended the season at .256 in 145 games, with 4 homers and 50 RBI.

A flair for the dramatic[edit]

Jeter speaks with Pres. Bush before he threw out the ceremonial first pitch in Game Three of the 2001 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium

Jeter has a reputation for making dramatic defensive plays, as a couple of instances have drawn a great deal of attention. Perhaps the most notable example of this occurred on October 13, 2001 (Boxscore), during Game 3 of the ALDS against the Oakland Athletics. The Yankees trailed in the series, two games to none, but led 1-0 in the 7th inning. With the A's Jeremy Giambi on first base representing the tying run, Terrence Long hit a shot down the right-field line. While Giambi lumbered around the bases, Yankee rightfielder Shane Spencer grabbed the ball and fired it toward home plate. However, Spencer rushed the throw and missed not one, but two cutoff men. Jeter, seeing the throw go off-line, raced into foul territory, fielded the ball on the run, and in one motion flipped the ball behind him to catcher Jorge Posada, who tagged Giambi out. The Yankees held on for a 1-0 win, then took the next two games and the series.

On July 1, 2004 (Boxscore), Jeter made another extraordinary defensive play. In the 12th inning of a tie game against the Boston Red Sox, Boston's Trot Nixon hit a pop-up down the left-field line toward the stands. Jeter sprinted for the ball and made a running one-handed catch, but hit the left-field wall at full-speed, sending him into the stands headfirst. Jeter held on to the ball, but emerged bruised and bloodied, with lacerations on his chin and cheek. Although he was forced to leave the game and get X-rays, Jeter was back in the lineup the following night with a large bandage on his chin. Some fans quickly began to wear similar bandages on their chins as a sign of support.

In the final homestand at Yankee Stadium, Jeter passed Lou Gehrig for the most career hits at the famous ballpark, with number 1,270.

Jeter joined the 3,000 hit club in typically memorable fashion on July 9, 2011. After missing three weeks with a calf injury while just six hits short of the magic number, he got his hitting stroke back slowly, but, with the national media watching, had a tremendous game to set the milestone. He first singled on a full count in the 1st inning, then in the 3rd, hit a home run off David Price to reach the mark. He was only the second of the 28 players to have their 3,000th hit with a home run, after former teammate Wade Boggs; he then went 3 for 3 in his remaining at bats as the Yankees defeated the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-4. Another theatrical moment occurred on July 28, 2013, when he returned to the line-up as the shortstop after having played only one game all season following his broken ankle in the previous year's ALCS: he homered on the first pitch he saw from Tampa Bay's Matt Moore, sending the home crowd into a frenzy and starting a three-run outburst; moreover his home run was the slumping Yankees' first since the 2013 All-Star Game and the first by a right-handed batter since June 25th !

Before the start of the 2014 season, Jeter announced that it would be his last one in the majors. He was back to health after his lost season the previous year. When he took the field at shortstop on Opening Day on April 1st, he became the first Yankees player to play in 20 seasons with the team; Mariano Rivera had been tied with him with 19 seasons, but he had retired after the 2013 season. On May 23rd, he tied Luis Aparicio for second all-time with 2,583 games at shortstop, although he had no chance of catching the all-time leader, Omar Vizquel, at 2,709, given his upcoming retirement. He was voted the starting shortstop at the 2014 All-Star Game played at Target Field in Minneapolis, MN on July 15th, and once again was in the spotlight in what was his 14th and final appearance in the midsummer classic. He led off the bottom of the 1st with a double off Adam Wainwright and came in to score when Mike Trout followed with a triple, then he singled off Clayton Kershaw to lead off the 3rd but was stranded, before giving way to Alexei Ramirez in the 4th. That performance meant that he finished with a sparkling lifetime mark of 13-for-27 (.481) in his 14 appearances in the mid-summer classic.

His final game in his home ballpark on September 25, 2014, was another occasion for Jeter to show his ability to thrive in the spotlight. Before the largest crowd of the season, the Baltimore Orioles scored three runs off David Robertson to tie the game at 5-5 in the top of the 9th, but in the bottom of the inning, Jeter hit a single to the opposite field off Evan Meek to drive in pinch-runner Antoan Richardson from second base, ending the game and providing another unforgettable moment for his fans. In his final game, at Fenway Park on September 28th, he hit an infield single in the 3rd inning, driving in Ichiro Suzuki from third base, then exited the game. He finished with 3,465 hits, the 6th highest total ever.

Memorable postseason player[edit]

Throughout his career, Jeter has been known as one of the best postseason players in baseball history. Since arriving in the majors in 1996, Jeter's Yankees have been in the playoffs every year save for the 2008 season and have won 7 American League Championships and 5 World Series Championships. Jeter's personal postseason performance has been a major factor in the Yankees' success. As of 2012, Jeter has a career .308 postseason batting average and ranks among the leaders in many postseason categories. The playoffs were expanded just as Jeter was becoming a big-leaguer, giving him the perfect opportunity (along with playing on a star-studded team) to amass stats that look more impressive than they are.

Some of Jeter's most memorable moments have come in postseason play. These include his 8th-inning, game-tying home run against Baltimore in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS, his shovel pass in Game 3 of the 2001 ALDS against Oakland, and his game-winning, 10th-inning home run off Arizona's Byung-Hyun Kim in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series (Boxscore). The home run briefly earned Jeter the moniker, "Mr. November," as it came 4 minutes after midnight on November 1st. Due to the September 11, 2001 attacks, it was the first Major League game to be played in the month of November. Jeter has hit above .300 in more than half of the postseason series he's played in, including .500 in the 2002 ALDS, .429 in the 2003 ALDS, .346 in the 2003 World Series, .316 in the 2004 ALDS, .333 in the 2005 ALDS, a run that further solidified his reputation as a "clutch" player.

Uncharacteristically, Jeter struggled during the 2004 ALCS against Boston, batting only .200 in a series in which the Yankees would notably become the first team in major league history to lose a best-of-seven series after taking a 3-games-to-nothing lead.

Jeter rebounded in the 2005 ALDS, where the Yankees battled the Los Angeles Angels. Though the Yankees lost in five games, Jeter hit .333 in the series and came up with timely hits in the decisive Game 5, including a late home run. He hit .500 in the 2006 ALDS as the Yankees were surprised by the Tigers, but then slumped to .176 with no extra-base hits in the 2007 ALDS against Cleveland. The Yankees then uncharacteristically missed the postseason in 2008 - the first time this had happened since Jeter had joined the team - but both he and the team were at their best in the 2009 Postseason. He hit .400 with 2 doubles and a homer in a sweep of the Twins in the Division Series, added two more homers and scored 5 runs in a win over the Angels in the ALCS, then hit over .400 in the World Series as the Yankees beat the Phillies. He had a relatively quiet postseason in both 2010 and 2011, and the Yankees did not go far either year, but seemed to have his old spark in 2012, when he hit .364 as the Yankees defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the ALDS; however, he fractured his ankle in the 12th inning of Game 1 of the ALCS, ending his season, and without their captain, the Yankees were swept by the Detroit Tigers. It was Jeter's final postseason appearance.

However, his postseason cWPA of +1.4% in 158 games does not point to a huge contribution to his team's postseason success. In addition, the only series in which he had over +7.0% cWPA was the 2000 World Series. His traditional Postseason stats aren't particularly good either, with Triple Crown numbers of .308/20/61 in the equivalent of a full season. Not terrible, but not outstanding either. For example Mickey Mantle has +83.5% cWPA, Mike Stanton is at +77.2%, Reggie Jackson at +63.3%, David Ortiz at +63.2%, Albert Pujols at +58.3%, and Yogi Berra at +54.1%. Even Barry Bonds, notorious as a postseason choker early in his career, has a cWPA of +23.0%, 16 times that of Jeter!

Yankee Captain[edit]

Jeter's iconic moments, as well as his off-the-field leadership, led to the Yankees naming him the 11th captain in Yankees history on June 3, 2003. (However, Howard W. Rosenberg, the foremost historian on baseball captains and author of the 2003 book Cap Anson 1: When Captaining a Team Meant Something: Leadership in Baseball's Early Years, has found that the count of Yankee captains failed to count Hall of Famer Clark Griffith, the 1903-1905 captain, and Kid Elberfeld, the 1906-1909 one, with 1913 Manager Frank Chance a strong circumstantial candidate to have been captain that year as well. Therefore, Jeter may in fact have been the 13th or 14th Yankees captain.) He continued to hold the position until his retirement at the end of the 2014 season and the title was not granted to another player until Aaron Judge was so named in 2023, after breaking Roger Maris's AL record for homers in a season the previous year.

Community Service[edit]

Jeter is also involved with a charity called "Jeter's Leaders", a youth group from New York City. The program "fosters leadership, peer education, a healthy lifestyle, and preparation for college and beyond" according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Trivia[edit]

Some sources state that Jeter was named after 1970s Boston Bruins' hockey player Derek Sanderson, but this information is not confirmed by the biography on Jeter's site or any other conclusive source.

His favorite food is chicken parmigiana.

He has his own signature line of sneakers under the Jordan brand, a division of Nike.

He has appeared in national advertising campaigns for Nike, Gatorade, Fleet Bank, MasterCard, Visa, Skippy Peanut Butter and XM Satellite Radio, among others. He receives a reported $6 million per year in endorsements, more than any other baseball player after Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners. He was voted the 'most marketable player in baseball' in a 2005 Sports Business Journal poll. He also has his own cologne sold through Avon called "Driven". See [1] for details.

He ranked 38th in Forbes' 2005 list of the Top 100 Celebrities.

His best friends in baseball are former teammates Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada

Derek is one of the few players in history whose name has been made into an adjective describing a particular kind of swing - the "Jeterian" inside-out swing, with which he often drilled inside pitches to right field. In reality, Ted Williams first popularized the style in The Science of Hitting, and a number of players adopted it after that.

One of his baseball cards holds the record for the highest price for which a modern card (i.e. post 1986) has ever sold. In 2018, a 1993 Upper Deck short print rookie card depicting him sold for $99,100 at auction.

CC Sabathia once invited him to lunch at PeachTree Cafeteria, which Sabathia called "heaven on Earth". After heading to Starbucks and eating lunch with Sabathia, Jeter fell asleep on a couch in the visitor's clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium. He rapped five hits that day. "His stomach is hurting. He can barely run the bases", said Sabathia. Jeter returned the next day, hoping to pick up a few more base knocks.

Media attention[edit]

Jeter has often been a media favorite, dating back to his performance in 1994, when a good (but hardly stellar) season earned him Minor League Player of the Year honors from The Sporting News. Many people have criticized the media's unwillingness to criticize Jeter or the trumpeting of his skills beyond what they are worth. There has been the opposite tendency in the statistically-minded community, downplaying the career of an excellent (if overrated) player. A 2006 poll of Major League Baseball players showed that the people who play the game side with the more statistically-oriented side, as Jeter was voted the most overrated player in baseball. 9% of those polled selected him, edging Carlos Beltran by 2%. There was a lot of criticism when he was awarded his first Gold Glove Award in 2004, as advanced defensive metrics favored by sabermetricians showed him as one of the weakest defensive players in baseball at his position, in spite of his stellar reputation.

He appeared on Seinfeld as himself in "The Abstinence".

Jeter has also dated fellow celebrities such as Mariah Carey, Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johanssen and Jessica Biel. In November of 2015, he announced that he had become engaged to long-time girlfriend Hannah Davis, a former model. The two were married on July 9, 2016. The couple's first child, daughter Bella Raine, was born on August 17, 2017.

Post-playing career[edit]

In December 2016, the Yankees announced that they would retire Jeter's uniform number, #2, at a ceremony the following May 14th. The number's retirement meant that all uniform numbers from 1 to 10 were now retired by the team; a plaque was also dedicated in his honor in Monument Park.

In April 2017 his name emerged among those of potential investors interested in purchasing the Miami Marlins, linked to that of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, brother of President George W. Bush. While Bloomberg News reported on April 25th that they had made a successful bid of $1.3 billion for the team, the Commissioner's office immediately issued a denial, stating there were multiple groups interested in acquiring the team and that the bidding process was still ongoing. Bush eventually ended his interest, but on August 11th, the Miami Herald reported that another group including Jeter, around New York-based businessman Bruce Sherman, had made a successful bid of $1.2 billion for the team. Jeter was said to contribute $25 million to that total and to become the team's President for baseball matters once the sale is finalized and approved by Major League Baseball. The sale was approved by MLB owners on September 27th, pending finalization of the sale in the next few days, opening the door for Jeter's entry into the ownership ranks. His ownership share represented 4% of the capital.

He drew criticisms for his first moves with the Marlins, which included firing four long-time members of the executive team, Andre Dawson, Tony Perez, Jeff Conine and Jack McKeon. All four were icons of baseball in south Florida, having either contributed to the Marlins' two World Series wins in Conine and McKeon's case, or being Hall of Famers with strong connections to Miami like Dawson and Perez. Jeter later backed off from his move, stating that David Samson, who had communicated the news, had jumped the gun and that he was looking to find a role for the four within the new structure. The misstep was a sign that he needed to be careful about respecting some of the positive aspects of the team's history, even if wanting to do away with the accumulated bitterness of the Loria years. One of the first persons he did hire was Gary Denbo a former member of the Yankees' front office, to serve as director of player development and amateur scouting. He was quickly engulfed in controversy over the issue of Giancarlo Stanton's contract, when he stated at the General managers' meeting in November that he was willing to entertain trade offers for the superstar outfielder with the huge contract. That immediately drew criticism from agent Scott Boras, who said that this proved the Marlins still had no desire to field a competitive team. Rumors also emerged that he wanted to trim the team's payroll to $90 million, which involved either trading the superstar, or, if he refused to waive his no-trade clause, keeping him but trading anyone else of value around him to start another rebuild. Either move was likely to anger an already impatient fan base.

It turned out that the chosen path was a veritable fire sale, something Miami's fans had unfortunately already seen too many times. Stanton was dealt to the New York Yankees for mostly salary relief, in addition to 2B Starlin Castro and two prospects from the lower tier of the Yankees' farm system. Castro was nominally taking the place of Dee Gordon, who was traded a couple of days earlier to the Seattle Mariners in return for more second-tier prospects, but given ongoing developments, it was far from certain he would still be on the team by opening day in 2018. These moves were then followed by the trade of OF Marcell Ozuna to the St. Louis Cardinals for another return of dubious value, leading agent Scott Boras to call the Marlins a "pawn shop." The moves continued with the trade of the Marlins' third star outfielder, Christian Yelich, to the Milwaukee Brewers in January 2018. To no one's surprise after these moves, the Marlins had awful on-field results in both 2018 and 2019, and attendance was dreadful. However, they surprised just about everyone in 2020 by sneaking into the expanded postseason, in spite of being one of the teams hardest hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. Once in the playoffs, they extended their streak of consecutive postseason series won to seven by upsetting the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card Series, before bowing to the Atlanta Braves in the Division Series. But the progress achieved under these special circumstances turned out to be built on sand, as the Fish sank back to the bottom of the standing in 2021, and attendance was as problematic as ever.

On February 28, 2022, while the owners and Players Association were in frantic negotiations to settle the 2021-2022 lockout, Jeter dropped a surprise announcement in the media, letting it be known he was steeping down immediately as CEO of the Marlins, and also giving up his ownership shares in the team. There seemed to have been a falling out with principal owner Sherman as he explained that "the future of the franchise is different than the one I signed up to lead." This left day-to-day operational decisions in the hands of two women: Kim Ng, hired by Jeter to be the general manager just one year earlier, for all baseball operations, and Caroline O'Connor in charge of business dealings. His move was interpreted as his saying that he did not want to run a team where the main objective was not to win, but to make profits at the cost of putting an inferior product on the field.

In 2023, he joined FOX Sports to serve as a studio analyst for baseball broadcasts. His former teammate and nemesis, Alex Rodriguez, was already part of that same broadcast team.

He has also co-authored, with Tim Green, a series of books for young adult readers.

Legacy[edit]

Jeter first became eligible for the Hall of Fame in its 2020 election. It was clear that he would be a first-ballot inductee, the only question being whether he would match long-time teammate Mariano Rivera's feat of receiving unanimous support from BBWAA voters. There were of course still a few writers who considered that he was overrated, largely because of his poor defensive numbers, but it wasn't clear that even these critics would go so far as ignore his other accomplishments and leave him off their ballot in an era when they were likely to encounter serious backlash for their decision. When the results were announced on January 21st, he missed unanimity by just one vote, being named on 396 of the 397 ballots cast. The COVID-19 pandemic meant he had to wait over a year for his induction ceremony, which was delayed until September 8, 2021.

Notable Achievements[edit]

1994 The Sporting News & Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year, Tampa Yankees, Florida State League, Albany-Colonie Yankees, Eastern League & Columbus Clippers, International League
1994 MVP Florida State League Tampa Yankees
1996 AL Rookie of the Year Award
1996 Topps All-Star Rookie Team
14-time AL All-Star (1998-2002, 2004, 2006-2012 & 2014)
2000 All-Star Game MVP
2000 World Series MVP
5-time AL Gold Glove Winner (2004-2006, 2009 & 2010)
5-time AL Silver Slugger Award Winner (2006-2009 & 2012)
AL At-Bats Leader (2012)
AL Runs Scored Leader (1998)
2-time AL Hits Leader (1999 & 2012)
3-time AL Singles Leader (1997, 1998 & 2012)
20-Home Run Seasons: 3 (1999, 2001 & 2004)
100 RBI Seasons: 1 (1999)
100 Runs Scored Seasons: 13 (1996-2002, 2004-2007, 2009 & 2010)
200 Hits Seasons: 8 (1998-2000, 2005-2007, 2009 & 2012)
Won five World Series with the New York Yankees (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 & 2009)

AL Rookie of the Year
1995	1996	1997
Marty Cordova	Derek Jeter	Nomar Garciaparra

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