Derek Jeter, playing in his first game of the 2013 season had an infield single in his first at bat. However, things would go downhill from there.
On his third at-bat Jeter injured his quadriceps muscle, and was pulled from the game before he could hit again. While Jeter, and manager Joe Girardi are trying to downplay the injury Bryan Hoch of MLB.com reports that Jeter is going to have an MRI on the injured quad.
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Here is our story from earlier today.
Derek Jeter made his season debut today in the Yankees afternoon affair with the Kansas City Royals. The Yankees eased their star shortstop back into the lineup having him DH today. He was hitting second in the order. Jeter’s return comes slightly earlier than expected as most believed he’d be out until after the all-star break.
Getting Jeter’s bat back in the lineup though, couldn’t come a moment too soon for the Yankees, who suffered injuries to Brett Gardiner and Travis Haffner recently. The Yankees are also missing Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson, Alex Rodriguez, and Kevin Youkilis on long-term injuries. Jeter gives the Yankees another bat that can get on base and score runs for the team, something that they have been lacking in recent weeks.
“In perfect world Derek would have played in Scranton (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) today, but what happened to Travis Hafner and Brett Gardner last night, we brought him back,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
Not yet ready to play shortstop on a full time basis and still recovering from the ankle injury suffered in last season’s ALCS, and then re-injured in spring training, the timetable on Jeter’s availability was accelerated greatly.
“Derek will finish rehab in the big leagues,” said general manager Brian Cashman. “Everyone knows this is where he needs to be … We’re better with him. Period.”
Despite his age, Jeter is still a quality performer. Last season, Jeter hit .316 for the Yankees.
Without Jeter, the Yankees shortstops have really struggled at the plate. They combined to bat .211 (29th in MLB) with a slugging percentage of .283 (30th) and 88 strikeouts (30th).
Jeter hasn’t played shortstop on back to back days, nor played more than 5 innings in the field during his 9 game minor league stint, still the Yankees insist he’s ready.
“He expects to play every day, and from that standpoint, I think we have to guard from rushing him back too much,” Girardi said. “In the perfect world, you’d have a month of spring training, but this has not been a perfect world this year with some of the things we’ve had to deal with. So it’s my job to manage him physically even though he’s going to want to be out there every day. We just have to be smart about it.”
The Yankees currently sit in 4th place in the tough AL East with a 49-42 record, 6 games back of the first place Boston Red Sox.
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