Buster Olney tweets that Derek Jeter’s comments in which he “essentially exonerated” teammate Jorge Posada of any wrongdoing has apparently angered his Yankee bosses.
Following this weekend’s shenanigans in which Posada removed himself from the Yankees’ lineup because manager Joe Girardi was making him bat ninth (oh, the horror!), Jeter said: “Everybody’s struggled. And if that’s the reason why he came out, then he doesn’t need to apologize. If it’s something else, then yeah, but not for that.”
If Olney’s report is accurate and the Yankees are upset over Jeter’s comments, then they need to get a clue. Jeter is still the captain of their team and he’s not going to make a situation worse by scolding one of his long-time teammates via the media. And quite frankly, his comments were rather innocent. He’s been around long enough to know that a situation like Posada’s will eventually get ironed out without him having to say much on the topic. The Yankees’ “bosses” should just let the situation die out.
What would the Yankees have rather had Jeter say? That Posada was being a selfish, stubborn player and should have acted more professional? Even if that’s what Jeter thought, saying something like that would have fueled the situation even more and caused there to be a rift in the clubhouse (which is something the struggling Yankees don’t need right now, especially after they were just swept by their most hated rivals).
I get that the Yankees don’t want Jeter “exonerating” Posada’s mistake. Posada was definitely in the wrong here, which is why he apologized. But he did apologize and that should be the end of the situation. There’s no reason to make a mountain out of a molehill and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees came out and denied Olney’s report, because they look rather silly right now.
