Yankees Welcome Back Derek Jeter

As of Thursday, shortstop Derek Jeter was back with the Yankees batting second and playing designated hitter against the Kansas City Royals. Jeter appears in a major league game for the first time since he broke his left ankle in October. In April they realized that he had another break and he hasn't been able to fully recover until now. In four rehabilitation games Jeter was 1 for 9 with four walks. General Manager Brian Cashman decided to have Jeter D.H. for the Yankees after two starting players suffered concussions. “We're better with him here, period,” Cashman said Thursday. “I think it's easy to say, you would expect with his age and a double break that he'd lose a step or two or half a step,” Cashman said. “But I think he's moving extremely well, from what I'm told.” “We have to guard against rushing him back too much,” Manager Joe Girardi said of Jeter. “We have to pick days off and we have to pick D.H. days because in a perfect world you have a month of spring training. This has not been a perfect world around here this year.” In terms of his expectations of Jeter Girardi said, “For him to be the Derek he was last year. There's nothing that tells me right now that he can't be, that he's not going to be able to be productive and play shortstop for us.”