After making it through batting practice and fielding drills this morning, Derek Jeter is set to DH this afternoon in a minor league game. The veteran shortstop was shut down earlier this week due to inflammation in his surgically-repaired left ankle and received a cortisone injection on Wednesday.
While Jeter is obviously making progress, he told reporters this morning that he doesn’t plan to provide daily updates on his ankle moving forward. Via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com:“I will not address how anything feels anymore,” Jeter said. “It’s good. It’s not broken. Some things, you’ve got to work through, like I told you. It’s really pointless to sit here and say each and every day, ‘How’s it feel? Does it feel better?’
“It’s pointless. Some days are good, some days are bad, but you’ve got to work through it. That’s what I’m going to do.”Yankees general manager Brian Cashman expressed some doubt this week whether Jeter will be ready for Opening Day, so he could stay on the minor league side for a little while in order to leave open the possibility of backdating a stint on the disabled list. The Yankees likely want to see him play a full nine innings at shortstop and/or back-to-back days before clearing him for the start of the season, even though he figures to be used at DH quite a bit in the early going.