Jeter may need longer than 15 days on DL

Derek Jeter threw for a third straight day Thursday, but to this point, there's been no indication that the Yankees shortstop will be ready to come off the disabled list Wednesday, the first day he's eligible.

"He still feels it," general manager Brian Cashman said of the strained right calf that landed Jeter on the DL June 14. "It's too early to say . I can't tell you he won't be back by then, but I can't tell you he will."

Jeter, who turns 37 Sunday, was six hits shy of reaching 3,000 for his career when he injured the calf June 13 against the Indians at the Stadium. The Yankees placed him on the DL the next day.

The Yankees will be in the middle of a three-game series against the Brewers on Wednesday and will start a three-game set against the Mets next Friday, which had raised the intriguing possibility that Jeter would get No. 3,000 at Citi Field.

But as the days go by and with Jeter still not able to truly test the calf, it now seems his historic pursuit will last well into July, if not longer.

Jeter played long toss Thursday at the Yankees' spring training complex in Tampa, but that's all he's been able to do and that's all the team will allow him to do.

"He's still receiving treatment, he's improving, but until he's pain-free, we're not going to let him do anything," Cashman said.

Manager Joe Girardi said Wednesday that Jeter is "headed in the right direction" but that the truest benchmark of progress won't come until the shortstop can run. "You really never know until you start to run. That's going to be the real test for him," Girardi said. "Calves can be tricky because it's that one explosive movement that seems to get you."

The Yankees have played well in Jeter's absence, going 7-2 and receiving solid play at shortstop from Eduardo Nuñez, who is 9-for-31 (.290) in the nine games he's started in Jeter's place. The 24-year-old has committed two of his team-high eight errors in that span, but he still has looked more comfortable in the field than earlier in the season, when he played sporadically.

Despite the success Brett Gardner and Nick Swisher have experienced batting first in Jeter's absence, Girardi twice said this week that Jeter -- who has a .260 batting average and .324 on-base percentage -- will reclaim his leadoff spot when he returns. During the Yankees' 4-2 interleague trip through Chicago and Cincinnati, Gardner and Swisher were a combined 12-for-38 (.316) hitting leadoff.

"These guys have done a great job in Derek's absence. Swish has done a great job against lefthanders, Gardy's done a great job against the righthanders," Girardi said. "But when Derek comes back, I'm going to put him in the leadoff spot."

Jeter has not spoken publicly since June 14 at the Stadium, when he discussed trying to "plead" his case to Cashman not to put him on the DL for the first time since 2003.

But even then he acknowledged feeling discomfort, which was quite an admission coming from a player whose fall-back answer to almost every injury inquiry is some form of "it's fine." Not that day, though.

"It almost felt like it was a charley horse in my calf,'' he said at the time. "That's what I thought it was initially. I was trying to stretch it out and get rid of it, but it didn't happen. I haven't done anything to my calf before. It's been sore for a couple of days, but I just thought it was normal soreness. Evidently, something grabbed.''

And still is, apparently leaving Jeter not as close to a return as he would hope.