Derek Jeter by the twos

We all knew it was coming, but Derek Jeter was officially announced as a member of the 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame class on Tuesday night.

Jeter will forever be linked to the only uniform number that he ever wore, #2. From the “Re2pect” slogan that went along with his final season to younger players wearing it because he was their favorite player growing up, he is definitely the most famous person in baseball to don it.

Between now and his induction, there will undoubtedly be plenty of career retrospectives and top moment countdowns, so this won’t quite be that. Instead, let’s take a look at how Jeter did in every conceivable situation (or at least many of them) involving the number two.

The second spot in lineup

Jeter hit second in the lineup more than 2000 times more than any other spot in the order. That continued all the way to the very end of his career, to the point where back in 2014 one Pinstripe Alley reader was convinced that there was a conspiracy theory that he had it written in his contract that he has to bat there.

For his career, Jeter hit .308/.376/.439 in the two slot. It shouldn’t be shocking considering how much time he spent hitting second, but those numbers are incredibly close to his overall career ones. He was very slightly better leading off, and had his best numbers in either the third or eight slots, though those last two sample sizes are way smaller.

On a performance level, Jeter probably shouldn’t have still been batting second in 2014, but leaving him there did give us his walkoff hit in his final home game, so we’ll excuse it.

The second inning

Based on the fact that, as mentioned, he spent most of his career hitting first or second, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the second inning is the non-extras inning where he has the least at-bats. In order for the second hitter to come up in the second inning, it requires some combination of five hitters to reach base. Obviously that’s not rare, but it’s also not something that happens every game.

In 706 second-inning plate appearances, Jeter has hit .297/.363/.402. The only inning he’s worse in than that one is the ninth, which is somewhat funny considering the clutch narrative that surrounds him.

2-2 count

At-bats that ended on the 2-2 pitch didn’t typically end well for Jeter, although you’d be hard pressed to find many players with excellent numbers in that spot. He struck out 527 times on a 2-2 pitch, while his OPS was just .525.

Two outs

Here’s another split that’s generally disadvantageous to the hitter. Jeter hits slightly better in this spot than he did with one out. A lot of that is due to the fact that he drew a lot of walks with two outs. He walked 365 times in 3421 plate appearances, compared to 350 in 4837 appearances and 367 in 4344 appearances with zero and one outs, respectively.

On the other hand, with two outs and runners in scoring position, he basically put up numbers in line with his career totals.

Two runners on

There are three different ways in which a team can have two runners on: first/second, first/third, second/third. Jeter’s best in any of those is a .903 OPS with runners on first and third. He had 143 RBI in 296 plate appearances in that situation, essentially meaning he drove home a run in every other time he came up. He’s below his career norms with runners on first/second and second/third.

2002

Sadly, time robs us of seeing Jeter play in 2022 (fingers crossed for some long distance relative of his playing in 2222), so ‘02 will have to do.

With a 111 OPS+, it was arguably his worst hitting season in his peak years. It was the only year between 1997 and 2007 in which he did not receive MVP votes.

Minnesota Twins

It shouldn’t come as a total surprise, considering how the Yankees have owned them as a team, but Jeter also did very well against the Twins. According to tOPS+ (which compares how you did in a particular split with your overall numbers), Jeter hit Minnesota the ninth best of any team.

Out of any split you can find on his Baseball Reference page that involves the number two, the best of any of them is when Jeter faced a 2-0 count, hitting .418/.420/.643. So there you go. Re2pect to our new Hall of Famer, Derek Jeter.