ESPN: Neyer: Yankees shouldn’t consider moving Jeter to 2B

Weeeee!...I bet lawyers had an easier time defending Melvin “Sex Beast” Rees!

It’s more likely that Jeter’s relatively poor performance this year was due more to randomness than decrepitude, and I expect him to bounce back nicely next year with something like 25 Win Shares. Well, more than 20, anyway. And if you can rack up 20 Win Shares, you can play every day for just about anybody.

Which isn’t to suggest the Yankees should throw a billion dollars at Jeter next winter (or sooner). Because if they’re paying him a ton of money for five years, they’re going to feel like they have to play him regularly for five years, and in four or five years he will not be good enough to play every day. For the Yankees the money isn’t the issue; the issue is the games, the at-bats, the plate appearances.

And as Goldman suggests, second base probably isn’t the answer. Even if he can actually play second base, whatever you gain in defense you’re likely to lose in positional scarcity. What you’re trying to do is win games, and you don’t win any more games with Jeter playing second base than you win with him playing shortstop. Essentially it’s quite a simple thing: Aside from the likely uptick next season, Jeter’s going to become less and less valuable over the next five or six years because there’s really no other way for the math to work.

Do you think the Steinbrothers will have the courage to let him become less and less valuable for some other team?