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River Ave. Blues ยป Tony Fernandez

Tony Fernandez: The Derek Jeter Insurance The Yankees Never Needed

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(Getty)
(Getty)

The Yankees had an awful lot bad shortstops from 1986-95. A total of 23 different players played at least one game at short during that time — seven played at least 100 games at shortstop — and they combined to hit .242/.299/.317 in nearly 6,000 plate appearances. That’s roughly 25% below league average. Only the Mariners (26%) and Pirates (28%) received worst production from shortstop from 1986-95.

Heading into the 1996 season, the Yankees had two options at shortstop: the incumbent Tony Fernandez and a young rookie named Derek Jeter. “What we’re looking to do is give Jeter a chance to play shortstop,” said GM Bob Watson to Jack Curry before Spring Training. “(But) we don’t know if the kid can play yet.” New manager Joe Torre also indicated the plan was to play Jeter at short during his introductory press conference before backing off in the spring.

Jeter, then 22, hit .250 in 15 big league games in 1995, his MLB debut. Baseball America ranked him as the No. 6 prospect in baseball prior to that 1996 season. Fernandez, meanwhile, hit .245/.322/.346 (75 OPS+) in 1995 and was 33 years old. The Yankees had sketched out a plan where Jeter played shortstop, Fernandez slid over to second base, and the newly signed Mariano Duncan served as a utility player.

“As far as I know, there’s no competition. Maybe you know more than I do. About the only thing I know is they want to go with (Jeter),” said Fernandez to Curry. “Obviously, they don’t feel like I can play (shortstop) every day. If you were in my position in the last year of your contract, what would you do? I want to play every day.”

Fernandez did not outright request a trade that spring, but he did say enough to suggest that if he wasn’t the starting shortstop, he’d rather play for another team. “Right now, in my mind, I can still play every day. If I don’t play here, I’d like to play someplace else. I don’t want to cause any trouble,” he said. Watson was having none of that. He wanted Fernandez around as insurance at shortstop.

The Yankees did want Jeter to win the shortstop job in Spring Training. That was clear. They weren’t going to give it to him though. Fernandez was the established big leaguer and the rookie had to wrestle the job from him. “I’m comfortable with Duncan playing second base,” said Torre to Curry in Spring Training, further hedging against Jeter. “But it takes away another pawn from me because of his ability to play everywhere.”

The shortstop decision was made for the Yankees in Spring Training. On March 24th, near the end of camp, Fernandez fractured his right elbow diving for a ball. It was the same elbow Fernandez fractured on the Bill Madlock play in 1987. Doctors said the 1987 fracture did not heal properly, so Fernandez’s elbow was “soft,” leading to the 1996 fracture on the dive. The expectation was he’d miss the season.

“This is a major thing. It’s Tony Fernandez. He’s a regular player,” said Torre after the injury. Ironically, Fernandez suffered the injury after Jeter botched a potential inning-ending double play when his flip to second was wide of the bag. “Nobody knows what the future holds. We can’t say that if we didn’t turn the double play, it wouldn’t have happened,” said Fernandez afterwards.

With Fernandez out and Pat Kelly set to start the season on the DL, the Yankees were looking at a double play combination of Jeter and Duncan to start the season. Watson did not sit tight though. He did his GM thing and looked around for infield help, and at one point the club was considering trading the unproven Mariano Rivera to the Mariners for Felix Fermin. That didn’t happen, thankfully.

Jeter had an underwhelming Grapefruit League showing but got the job anyway. The Yankees had no other options. He was at short, Duncan was at second, and the rookie Andy Fox made the club as the utility infielder. Jeter rewarded the Yankees right away. He hit a home run on Opening Day …

… and made several spectacular defensive plays as well. Jeter went 3-for-3 with a walk the next day. After the first two weeks of the regular season, he was hitting .355 with a .524 OBP and more walks (nine) than strikeouts (five). It was only two weeks, but the Yankees had concerns about handing the shortstop job over to Jeter with no clear backup plan. Derek erased any doubts rather quickly.

Jeter hit .314/.370/.430 (101 OPS+) with ten homers and 14 steals during that 1996 season, earning him AL Rookie of the Year honors unanimously. He helped them win the 1996 World Series by hitting .361/.409/.459 in the club’s 15 postseason games that October. The shortstop job was unquestionably Jeter’s by the end of the season, and he kept that job for nearly two decades.

Fernandez never did return to the Yankees during that 1996 season. There was some thought he could be ready by September, but it didn’t happen. Fernandez was not thrilled there was talk Jeter would take over as shortstop going into the 1996 season, and now, with Jeter excelling at the position, his time in New York was over. Fernandez became a free agent after the season and signed with the Indians.

The Yankees got what they wanted. They wanted Jeter to be their starting shortstop in 1996. Jeter felt ready — “I think I’m ready. I’ve waited my whole life to play for the Yankees,” he said to Curry — but the team did want to have a backup plan just in case things didn’t work out. Fernandez was that backup plan. Once he fractured his elbow in Spring Training, the Yankees did not have a safety net at short. As it turned out, they wouldn’t need one for nearly 20 years.

A decade of bad shortstops before Derek Jeter

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Rickey and Alvaro. (Getty)
Rickey and Alvaro. (Getty)

You can disparage his defense all you want, there is still no argument to be made that anyone other than Derek Jeter is the best shortstop in Yankees history. It’s not even close. Jeter was excellent for two decades in pinstripes, both on the field and the way he represented the organization off the field, and now the Yankees are set to move forward without him.

In the decade before Jeter, the Yankees went through some really terrible starting shortstops. Bad shortstops are not the only reason the team didn’t go to the postseason from 1982-95, but geez, they didn’t exactly help either. Here’s a look back at the guys who manned the shortstop position in the Bronx the decade before Jeter arrived.

1986: The Five-Headed Monster

Bobby Meacham, who put up a 59 OPS+ as the starting shortstop in 1985 and was in the conversation for the worst everyday player in baseball, started at short on Opening Day in 1986, but Wayne Tolleson started the most games at the position that season (53) after coming over from the White Sox at the trade deadline. Mike Fischlin, Paul Zuvella, and Dale Berra all started 15+ games at short as well. Tolleson had an 85 OPS+ and was the best of the lot. Overall, the Yankees got a .227/.295/.283 (75 OPS+) batting line with zero homers and more caught stealings (eleven) than stolen bases (six) out of their shortstops in ’86.

1987: Tolleson, then Meacham

Tolleson started the year as the everyday shortstop but eventually lost the job to Meacham because he hit .236/.318/.261 (58 OPS+) with one homer in the first half. Meacham put up a very nice .275/.351/.423 (109 OPS+) line with five homers as the everyday guy after the All-Star break. Smash them (and some others) together and the Yankees still received a woeful .229/.306/.277 (72 OPS+) batting line from their shortstops that year.

1988: Rafael Santana

Man, I completely forgot about Santana. He originally came up through the minors with the Yankees, was traded to the Cardinals for reliever George Frazier in 1981, then wound up with the Mets from 1984-87. The Yankees got him from the Mets in a totally forgettable five-player trade in December 1987. Anyway, Santana was the team’s regular shortstop in 1988 and he hit .240/.289/.294 (65 OPS+) with four homers in 148 games. The downward trend continues.

1989-91: The Alvaro Espinoza Era

Following the 1987 season, the Yankees signed Espinoza as a minor league free agent, and he spent just about the entire 1988 season with Triple-A Columbus, where he hit .246/.262/.306 in 119 games. But, because he could play the hell out of the position, the Yankees entrusted him as their starting shortstop in 1989. And again in 1990. Also in 1991 as well. During those three seasons, Espinoza hit .255/.281/.318 (68 OPS+) with seven homers in over 1,500 plate appearances spanning 444 games. His defense was good! But my gosh, that’s 1,500 plate appearances the club just threw away those years.

1992: Andy Stankiewicz

Randy Velarde started the year at shortstop but Stankiewicz, who spent the 1990-91 seasons with Triple-A Columbus, got the job in early-June and hit .268/.338/.348 (94 OPS+) with two homers in 116 games. It was by far the best stretch of his career. Velarde, Mike Gallego, and Dave Silvestri also saw time at short in 1992. The amalgam of shortstops hit .248/.317/.331 (99 OPS+) on the season. Compared to 1986-91, this was like getting All-Star production at short for New York.

1993: Spike Owen

Spike. (Getty)
Air Spike. (Getty)

I remember thinking Owen was a baddest mofo around when I was kid because his name was Spike. The Yankees signed him as a free agent during the 1992-93 offseason because he’d just hit .269/.348/.381 (107 OPS+) with the Expos, then Owen hit .234/.294/.311 (66 OPS+) in pinstripes, which was much more in line with the rest of his career. The Yankees traded Spike to the Angels after the season and he put up a 118 OPS+ with the Halos. Go figure. Gallego and Velarde also saw a decent amount of playing time at short in 1993 and they all somehow combined to hit .268/.330/.372 (103 OPS+). That’s good!

1994: You Say Gallego, I Say Gallago

Gallego was the primary shortstop during the strike-shortened 1994 season with Velarde and Kevin Elster — Elster managed to go 0-for-20 on the year — also seeing time at the position. Gallego hit .239/.327/.359 (81 OPS+) with six homers and the Yankees received a .231/.308/.367 (91 OPS+) line out of their shortstops overall. At least Gallego could play defense. Not too many of these pre-Jeter shortstops could say that.

1995: Tony Fernandez

Finally, a brand name. Fernandez made a name for himself as a slick fielder/just good enough hitter with the Blue Jays in the 1980s. He bounced around a bit in the early-1990s before landing with the Yankees as a free agent. Fernandez was 33 at the time and coming off a 106 OPS+ with the Reds in 1994, then, in 1995, he hit .245/.322/.346 (75 OPS+) with five homers in 108 games in pinstripes. Velarde played a bunch of shortstop while Fernandez was hurt in May — that’s when Jeter got his first taste of the show — and overall these guys hit .246/.321/.352 (95 OPS+) with seven homers on the year.

* * *

From 1986-95, the decade before Jeter, Yankees shortstops combined to hit .241/.296/.314 (80 OPS+) with 37 homers in nearly 6,000 plate appearances. That’s a decade of futility. In fact, you can go back even further than that. Before Jeter in 1996, the last Yankees shortstop to qualify for the batting title with even a 100 OPS+ was Roy Smalley in 1983 (126 OPS+). The pre-Jeter years were ugly at shortstop, folks. Let’s hope the post-Jeter years are better.