Former New York Yankees star Derek Jeter is a legitimate Hall of Famer.
He is one of just a handful of players with more than 3,000 hits and multiple World Series rings.
Additionally, he set several postseason hitting records during his time as a player, which ended in 2014.
Jeter had a brilliant career that included 14 All-Star berths (1998–2002, 2004, 2006–2012, 2014), five World Series championships (1996, 1998–2000, 2009), a World Series MVP (2000), the AL Rookie of the Year (1996), five Gold Glove awards (2004–2006, 2009, 2010), five Silver Slugger awards (2006–2009, 2012), a couple of AL Hank Aaron awards (2006, 2009) and a Roberto Clemente award (2009).
The five Gold Gloves, however, have been the reason of controversy for some time.
Jeter has a reputation as a good fielder that just isn’t true: he wasn’t one, and the numbers back that up.
During his career at shortstop, he had a whopping -162 Defensive Runs Saved, or DRS, a number that has (rightfully) actually fed the “Jeter was a lousy defensive shortstop” narrative.
Defensive WAR also shows that he wasn’t good with the glove.
“Best and worst dWAR, 2004-2010, 75%+ time at shortstop: Jack Wilson, 15.5; Adam Everett, 13.7; Jimmy Rollins, 11.5; Rafael Furcal, 9.6 … … Ángel Berroa, -1.1; Hanley Ramírez, -1.5; Yuniesky Betancourt, -1.8; Derek Jeter, -3.3. Jeter won five Gold Glove Awards during this time,” Codify Baseball tweeted.
More because of his reputation than anything else – and the fact that he always made the routine play and rarely made errors – Jeter won five Gold Gloves without deserving them.
Nothing can be done about that at this point, though.
Regardless of his fielding ability, Jeter is and will always be an MLB legend worthy of his status as a Hall of Famer.
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