Brian Cashman has been general manager and senior vice president of the New York Yankees since 1998. He witnessed the overwhelming majority of Derek Jeter's career and believes No. 2 can't be replaced in one specific respect.
And that's as captain of the New York Yankees. Jeter was named captain in 2003 and assumed the role until his retirement this past season. The 40-year-old helped the team to five World Series titles, including one in 2009 when he was the Yankees' leader and unrivaled face of the franchise. The captaincy is now vacant and Cashman is unsure whether anyone can fill Jeter's shoes.
"I think Derek did it as well as anyone can,'' Cashman told Wallace Matthews of ESPNNewYork.com. "He wore it well, and I'm not a big advocate of giving out the captaincy anyway. I'm not going to recommend anyone being named captain of the New York Yankees right away.''
"And that's not disrespectful of any of the guys I have here that have a lot of leadership. As far as I'm concerned, and I'm not the decision-maker on this, that captaincy should be retired with No. 2. I wouldn't give up another captain title to anybody else.''
That decision is up to ownership and it's unknown if/when they will choose a new captain. Matthews notes the possible successors are catcher Brian McCann, first baseman Mark Teixeira, third baseman Chase Headley, outfielder Brett Gardner and third baseman Alex Rodriguez.
Jeter is among the all-time Yankee greats and is the team leader in games played (2,747), plate appearances (12,602), at-bats (11,195), hits (3,465), singles (2,595), doubles (544) and stolen bases (358). The team's all-time career batting records are shared amongst Jeter, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
If Cashman doesn't see a viable candidate to succeed Jeter in the near future, it's likely ownership shares the same mindset. It could be a little while before the New York Yankees name their 17th captain.
