Update (5:57pm): The Yankees announced that Jeter has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with that strained right calf. Pena takes his place on the roster. The Cap’n made a case to remain active, but the Yankees just couldn’t play any more shorthanded than they already are, not with the NL leg of interleague play coming up this weekend.
Original Post (4:27pm): Derek Jeter will miss at least a week with an injured calf, Yankees manager Joe Girardi told reporters this afternoon, but the club will not move to place him on the disabled list until after the short stop meets with doctors at 6 p.m. tonight. No matter what happens with Jeter, the Yanks will recall Ramiro Peña from Triple A Scranton to provide infield depth, but Eduardo Nuñez will receive the majority of the playing time at short during Jeter’s absence.
Jeter left last night’s game in the fifth inning after pulling up lame while running out a routine fly ball, and was seen slamming his helmet as he walked to the clubhouse with assistant trainer Steve Donohue. It’s a shock whenever the Cap’n gets hurt because he’s been remarkably durable during his career. This would be his first DL stint since the infamous dislocated shoulder sidelined him for six weeks at the start of the 2003 season and just his fifth ever. The injury likely guarantees that his string of seven straight seasons with at least 150 games played will end.
For the Yankees, the decision to place Jeter on the disabled list is complicated by the Captain himself. As Jeter admitted, he knows he’s going to be out at least a week with the calf strain, but he is concerned, as Jack Curry noted, that if he is ready to play after a week, he’ll be bored waiting for his DL stint to be over. With the Yanks’ upcoming Interleague swing through NL parks, the club might be better off using the roster flexibility (although Jeter himself begs to differ).
As for Jeter’s pursuit of his 3000th career hits, well that’s going to be on hold for a while. He’s clearly not going to get to 3000 on this homestand. If he goes on the disabled list, he would be eligible to come off on Wednesday, June 29th, the second game of a three game series against the Brewers at home. The Yankees then head out on the road for six games, but it’s worth noting that the first series of that short road trip is against the Mets. Jeter’s six hits away, so it’s still possible that he’ll reach the milestone in New York, just in CitiField. If he misses only a week, he would be able to return to the lineup on the brink of a six-game homestand, and I’m sure the Yankees would prefer to see him reach the milestone in the Bronx.
We’ll update this story once the Yankees announce their moves later this evening.
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