What can Derek Jeter accomplish this season?
We all know Derek Jeter is retiring after the end of the 2014 season. We all know he is starting in his final All-Star Game tonight at Target Field. We all know Jeter has been one of the most consistent players in baseball over the past 20 years.
What can Jeter do with under half a season left in his career, albeit a possible few extra games in the playoffs? Derek Jeter has played in 2,685 career games which puts him 30th all-time. He can move up by passing Darrell Evans at 2,687, Graig Nettles at 2,700, and George Brett at 2,707 to move into a tie for 27th for most games. Mel Ott sits at 2,730 career games, which is impossible for Jeter to reach this season.
Another milestone Jeter could approach involves number of career hits. He sits at 3,408 and will pass Carl Yastrzemski for 7th place with hit number 3,420. Jeter can then tie Honus Wagner with 3,430 hits and take over 6th place himself with one more.
Jeter’s current roster acquaintance, Alex Rodriguez, sits at 9th all-time for runs scored with 1,919. Jeter as 1,907 and can pass Rodriguez before season’s end. A-Rod vows to play again and would likely re-pass Jeter if he did, but for now expect Jeter to be in 9th place come season’s end.
Despite his excellent batting average and statistics over his career, Jeter is hitting only .272 in 2014. He has nine doubles to his credit and needs a few more to crack the top-30 all-time in two baggers. Jeter is currently tied with Lou Gehrig; he can tie Al Simmons with 539 (34th), Dave Winfield and Joe Medwick with 540 (32nd), and then a few more players for each double after 540. Assuming Jeter has nine more doubles, that would leave him with 543 for his career and put him in a tie with the late Tony Gwynn and Albert Pujols. Pujols is likely to have at least one more double this season though.
At this point, Derek Jeter is just stat padding. He has had an illustrious career and we will all wait to see where he ends up on all of these all-time lists for baseball.