Girardi must drop Jeter down lineup

CLEVELAND

So the Yankees lost to the Indians on June 13, the night that Derek Jeter strained his right calf, and the Yankees lost to the Indians last night, 6-3, at Progressive Field, as Jeter returned from the disabled list.

And in between, the Yankees won 14 of 18 games.

Just making sure we have our facts straight.

Yes, of course the above statements oversimplify the matter, and no, Jeter didn't earn the primary goat horns Monday night as he went 0-for-4 to keep his career hits total at 2,994. Brett Gardner and Alex Rodriguez couldn't glove Lonnie Chisenhall's foul pop in the seventh inning, which would've been the third out, and losing pitcher A.J. Burnett proceeded to allow four runs as the Indians took a 4-2 lead.

Nevertheless, this much is indisputable: Every game that Joe Girardi insists on placing Jeter, the Yankees' worst everyday hitter, in the leadoff spot is a day he decreases the club's chances of winning.

"Everyone's entitled to your own opinion. But he's been a leadoff hitter," Girardi said of Jeter before the game. "He's been OK in the leadoff role for us this year, and we're going to put him back there."

SEE PHOTOSDerek Jeter timeline

Jeter has been "OK" in the leadoff role if you compare him to, perhaps, how Yogi Berra would perform there. But he's 86.

For a major-league player, however, Jeter now has a .331 on-base percentage and .339 slugging percentage in 257 plate appearances out of the leadoff spot. That simply isn't very good. True, it's better than Gardner's .298 OBP and .323 SLG in 106 plate appearances from the leadoff spot, but Gardner's overall numbers (.350, .405, better than Jeter's .320, .320) lead you to believe that he represents a better option.

To his credit, Jeter, in discussing his appreciation for being voted to the American League All-Star team, said this before the game: "It makes you feel good that people appreciate how you play. You're going to have years where your first half is going to be better than others. This year, I'm not happy with my first half."

That doesn't mean that Jeter is ready to emulate Don Mattingly, one of his role models, who told Yankees manager Buck Showalter to drop him from the No. 3 spot in the lineup in 1995. It does mean that Jeter, who turned 37 during his stay on the disabled list, isn't completely delusional about his paltry contributions to the Yankees' championship hopes this season.

Ultimately, though it would be nice for Jeter to be more receptive to a shift downward -- and we mean ninth, not second -- it's Girardi's job to draw up the lineups and manage the players. And right now, he seems to be prioritizing a respect for Jeter over the team's best statistical chance to win every day.

"I think people sometimes manage short-term," Girardi said. "When Gardy was in the leadoff spot and he wasn't hitting, everyone wanted me to move him out of the leadoff spot . . . Guys are going to go through hot spells and cold spells. If you move someone every time you're going through a cold spell, your lineup's going to be changing too much."

That's disingenuous. Jeter isn't going through a cold spell. He has been very bad for a season and a half now. For 1,036 plate appearances.

Girardi responded to a follow-up by noting that Jeter hits best leading off and has excelled in his first at-bat of the game. Both true. Not sufficient, though, to counteract the poor numbers.

The sooner Girardi drops Jeter far down the lineup, the better the Yankees can focus on their supposed only goal: Winning another championship.