Jeter knows when it will be time to quit

TAMPA, Fla. -- When it's time to call it a career, Derek Jeter says he'll know it.

And his contract status won't impact that decision in the least.

"I'm not playing just to play," Jeter -- in the second year of a three-year contract that has a player option for 2014 -- said Friday. "I still enjoy it, so that has nothing to do with it."

But it was clear in his annual spring training address to the media that Jeter, 37, isn't close to thinking about the kind of retirement news conferences/tributes that longtime teammates Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada have had in the last two years.

And, based on his second half in 2011, he has no reason to be.

When he landed on the disabled list June 14 with a strained right calf, Jeter was hitting .260 with a .324 on-base percentage. After returning July 4, he hit .331 with a .384 OBP in 69 games and 284 at-bats. He finished the season at .297, .355.

Jeter also drove the ball better in the latter span, slugging .324 before the stint on the disabled list and .447 afterward.

Jeter, who turns 38 June 26, begins the season with 3,088 hits and needs 196 to pass Willie Mays for 10th place in MLB history.

He very much believes he more resembles the player from last season's second half than the first half, though his poor start in 2011 appeared to be a continuation of a disappointing 2010.

"If I would think I'm not capable of doing it, then I wouldn't be playing," said Jeter, who was wearing a nifty Muhammad Ali "The Greatest" T-shirt. "If I didn't think I was capable of playing the game at a high level, then I would go home. If I wasn't enjoying myself, enjoying the competition, then it would be time to go home.

"Right now, I think I'm capable and I'm enjoying myself. I can't comment on what would force me to retire or go home or stop playing, but I have a lot of confidence. I've always had a lot of confidence, and if that starts to waver, then I wouldn't do it."

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Hitting coach Kevin Long, who worked extensively with Jeter in spring training last year and tried to eliminate the shortstop's stride while hitting -- a plan abandoned shortly after the season began -- believes seeing the second-half Jeter for all of 2012 is very possible.

"His last 300 at-bats or so, they were as good as anybody's," Long said Friday before Jeter spoke to the media. "He was doing everything. It was like [2009] . . . He was able to prove to everybody that age was not an issue. At 37, to be able to do what he did, it's pretty amazing, to tell you the truth."

The only concession to age that Jeter has been willing to make in recent years is acknowledging that it gets tougher to get ready for each season. "It gets a lot more difficult," he said. "You've probably heard me say it before: As you get older, you realize it's easier to stay in shape than it is to get back in shape, so you take a lot less time off . . . Playing the game's the easy part. It's just all the preparation that becomes difficult."

That could be part of the reason his attitude about an occasional day off has evolved from tooth-and-nail fight to acceptance. "I don't like days off, but I understand it," he said. "I like to play, but it is a long season, so I don't know if 'pace yourself' is the right way to put it, but you do have to rest."

Notes & quotes: Catcher Austin Romine was held out of Friday morning's short workout with back soreness. Joe Girardi said it's not serious, but Romine could be held out again Saturday . . . Joba Chamberlain, recovering from Tommy John surgery, threw his second half-mound session of the week Friday morning and will throw off a full mound for the first time in his rehab Tuesday . . . Pedro Feliciano, who had rotator-cuff surgery in September, visited Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla., on Feb. 17 and the surgeon told him he can begin a light throwing program . . . Girardi will give his annual address to the full squad Saturday. "We'll talk about what our focus is. And the reason we do things in spring training, and just remember what your focus is." Asked what that focus is, he smiled. "I think we all know that."