Prior to today’s game, the Yankees announced that Derek Jeter would not be in the lineup for the second straight game because of a quad issue. I’ve seen it described as sore, tight and strained, so I’m not really sure what to make of it. Should we be worried?

If you listen to Joe Girardi, you shouldn’t be concerned. Jeter apparently first felt the injury during Friday’s game, but wasn’t removed from the game. He had a scheduled day off on Saturday, so the original plan was to play him on Sunday, but with a team off day scheduled for Monday, Girardi decided to play it safe. He says Jeter is available in an emergency, but we probably won’t see him as anything other than a bottom of the ninth pinch hitter in this one. Maybe he’ll get a chance and hit some kind of walk-off.

People were already pissy because Girardi gave Jeter a day off on Saturday and everyone thinks he should play every day to appease fans who won’t get a chance to see him play again. I think that’s stupid. As Girardi said, he’s not trying to build a farewell tour^a, he’s trying to win a championship (although, that would be the best farewell tour ever). I think that April is the time to keep Jeter off the field if he’s not at 100%. If he goes out there and hurts himself for real, we’re looking at Dean Anna at short for a month or more. Jeter is 39 years old. We need to be cautious, or his farewell tour will be completely derailed.

Girardi says no tests are scheduled for Derek, and so I’m not going to worry about it. Hopefully he’ll be back out there on Tuesday, when the Cubbies come to town. I’d even go as far as saying we should DH him a day before putting him out on the field, just to be extra careful.

Featured image courtesy of: Kathy Willens/AP

1. http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/yankees/post/_/id/71940/girardi-i-wasnt-hired-to-put-on-farewell-tour  (back)