page_title: Derek Jeter
section_title: Defense
hierarchical_section_title: Derek Jeter / Player profile / Defense
caption_attribution_description: Derek Jeter practices fielding ground balls prior to a game between the New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles on August 26, 2011
context_page_description: Derek Sanderson Jeter is an American former professional baseball shortstop, businessman, and baseball executive. He has been the chief executive officer and part owner of the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball since September 2017. As a player, Jeter spent his entire 20-year MLB career with the New York Yankees. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2020; he received 396 of 397 possible votes, the second-highest percentage in MLB history and the highest by a position player.
  A five-time World Series champion, Jeter is regarded as one of the primary contributors to the Yankees' success of the late 1990s and early 2000s for his hitting, base-running, fielding, and leadership. He is the Yankees' all-time career leader in hits, doubles, games played, stolen bases, times on base, plate appearances and at bats. His accolades include 14 All-Star selections, five Gold Glove Awards, five Silver Slugger Awards, two Hank Aaron Awards, and a Roberto Clemente Award. Jeter was the 28th player to reach 3,000 hits and finished his career ranked sixth in MLB history in career hits and first among shortstops.
context_section_description: Jeter won five Gold Glove Awards, trailing only Vizquel, Ozzie Smith, Luis Aparicio, Dave Concepción, and Mark Belanger for most by a shortstop. He was credited with positioning himself well and for a quick release when he threw the ball. One of his signature defensive plays is the "jump-throw", by which he leapt and threw to first base while moving towards third base.
  Despite this, Jeter's defense was the subject of criticism from a number of sabermetricians, including Rob Neyer and the publication Baseball Prospectus. The 2006 book The Fielding Bible by John Dewan contains an essay by Bill James in which he concluded that Jeter "was probably the most ineffective defensive player in the major leagues, at any position" over his entire career. A 2008 study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that, from 2002 through 2005, Jeter was the worst defensive shortstop in MLB. Two sites that rely on advanced defensive statistics, FanGraphs.com and FieldingBible.com, rated Jeter below middle-of-the-pack status in 2010, despite his receiving his fifth Gold Glove Award that season.
  Jeter committed 18 errors in 2007, his highest total since finishing with 24 in 2000. After the season, Cashman and his staff saw Jeter's defense as an area that needed to be addressed. At the Yankees' request, Jeter embarked on a rigorous training program to combat the effects of age, by focusing on lateral movement and first-step quickness. Jeter's ultimate zone rating (UZR) improved from worst in the AL for shortstops in 2007 to close to league average in 2008.
  When asked to respond to criticism of his defense, Jeter replied: "I play in New York, man. Criticism is part of the game, you take criticism as a challenge." Jeter further asserted that many defensive factors cannot be quantified. The controversy over Jeter's fielding became a flash point for the debate over whether the analyses of statistics or subjective observation is the better method to assess a player's defensive ability and for criticism of the Gold Glove Award.
caption: Jeter practices fielding in August 2011
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