Was Derek Jeter the best Yankee in his era?

A couple of days ago on MLB Network Brian Kenny was discussing who was the best/most valuable during the 20 years that Derek Jeter played for the Yankees 1995-2014. He disagreed with his guest.

Brian Kenny said it was Bernie Williams who played only for the Yankees 1991-2006.

The guest said that pitching is most important and among position players he took Jeter over Williams. His pitching guy was reliever  Mariano Rivera.

Both Jeter and Rivera have been elected to the Hall of Fame. Jeter had one dissenting vote, Rivera none.

Note: I do not consider pitchers to be players, especially relief pitchers. A team has about 1,450 innings in a 162 game season.

200/1450=13.8%  starters

75/1450=5.2%  Rivera

Back to the post.

If we look only at career numbers for those years, obviously Jeter wins. It's his era. So I decided to look at each year individually, even including Jeter's first when he played little so that we get a sense of the type of Yankee team he was joining.

I used Wins Above Replacement (WAR). It's got problems but comparing players with pitchers is weird enough. It's important to remember that WAR is a total, not an average. The post below was run on batters only:

Yankees top 23 in career WAR analysed on Top7, JAWS, WAR/162, oWAR/dWAR. Saturday, July 20, 2024

Click this link to view the Yankees WAR. It will be repeated below.

Here is the rank summary for Williams and the Core Four (blank means that he was way lower than the table shows):

	Jeter	Williams	Rivera	Pettitte	Posada
1995		1		6
1996	7	3	2	1
1997	5	3	7	1
1998	1	4	12	15	10
1999	1	2	6	9
2000	3	2	8	5	1
2001	3	4	6	5	7
2002	7	4	15	10	5
2003	7	15	8	9	2
2004	3	15	4	Hou	7
2005	8	not play	7	Hou	5
2006	2	not play	6	Hou	5
2007	6	not play	10	7	3
2008	6	not play	3	8
2009	1	not play	8	9	15
2010	11	not play	9	8	13
2011	14	not play	8	not play
2012	8	not play		9	not play
2013		not play	5	7	not play
2014		not play	not play	not play	not play

Pettite played for Houston three years and then returned to the Yankees.

Here are the 20 years in five year chunks; pitchers are in red:

	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
1	Bernie Williams 6.4	Andy Pettitte 5.6	Andy Pettitte 8.4	Derek Jeter 7.5	Derek Jeter 8.0	1
2	Wade Boggs 4.2	Mariano Rivera 5.0	David Cone 6.7	Paul O'Neill 5.8	Bernie Williams 5.4	2
3	Jack McDowell 4.0	Bernie Williams 4.0	Bernie Williams 5.5	Scott Brosius 5.3	David Cone 5.1	3
4	Randy Velarde 3.5	Paul O'Neill 3.9	Tino Martinez 5.1	Bernie Williams 5.2	Orlando Hernandez 4.3	4
5	Mike Stanley 3.0	Wade Boggs 3.4	Derek Jeter 5.0	David Well 4.8	Chuck Knoblauch 3.5	5
6	Andy Pettitte 2.9	Kenny Rogers 3.4	David Well 4.3	David Cone 3.9	Mariano Rivera 3.5	6
7	Paul O'Neill 2.8	Derek Jeter 3.3	Mariano Rivera 3.7	Orlando Hernandez 3.5	Roger Clemens 2.8	7
8	David Cone 2.6			Tino Martinez 3.2	Paul O'Neill 2.8	8
9				Ramiro Mendoza 3.0	Andy Pettitte 2.5	9
10				Jorge Posada 2.9		10
11				Chuck Knoblauch 2.8		11
12				Mariano Rivera 2.8		12
	Mariano Rivera 0.2					13
	Jorge Posada 0.0					14
	Derek Jeter -0.3					15
						16
						17

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
1	Jorge Posada 5.5	Mike Mussina 7.1	Jason Giambi 7.1	Mike Mussina 6.5	Alex Rodriguez 7.6	1
2	Bernie Williams 5.2	Roger Clemens 5.6	Alfonso Soriano 4.9	Jorge Posada 5.9	Hideki Matsui 5.0	2
3	Derek Jeter 4.6	Derek Jeter 5.2	Mike Mussina 4.6	Alfonso Soriano 5.4	Derek Jeter 4.2	3
4	Roger Clemens 4.5	Bernie Williams 5.2	Bernie Williams 4.5	Jason Giambi 4.8	Mariano Rivera 4.2	4
5	Andy Pettitte 3.5	Andy Pettitte 3.4	Jorge Posada 4.0	David Well 4.3	Gary Sheffield 4.2	5
6	David Justice 3.2	Mariano Rivera 3.4	Orlando Hernandez 3.7	Roger Clemens 4.0	Tom Gordon 4.0	6
7	Orlando Hernandez 3.1	Jorge Posada 3.0	Derek Jeter 3.7	Derek Jeter 3.6	Jorge Posada 3.5	7
8	Mariano Rivera 2.6		Robin Ventura 3.7	Mariano Rivera 3.6		8
9			David Well 3.7	Andy Pettitte 3.1		9
10			Andy Pettitte 3.3			10
11						11
12						12
13						13
14						14
15			Mariano Rivera 1.6	Bernie Williams 1.0	Bernie Williams 0.9	15
16						16
17						17

	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
1	Alex Rodriguez 9.4	Chin-Ming Wang 6.0	Alex Rodriguez 9.4	Alex Rodriguez 6.9	Derek Jeter 6.6	1
2	Randy Johnson 5.7	Derek Jeter 5.6	Robinson Cano 6.7	Mike Mussina 5.1	CC Sabathia 6.2	2
3	Jason Giambi 4.6	Mike Mussina 5.0	Jorge Posada 5.4	Mariano Rivera 4.3	Mark Teixeira 5.3	3
4	Hideki Matsui 4.5	Alex Rodriguez 4.5	Chin-Ming Wang 5.0	Johnny Damon 4.2	A.J. Burnette 4.5	4
5	Jorge Posada 4.4	Jorge Posada 4.0	Hideki Matsui 4.1	Joba Chamberlain 3.9	Robinson Cano 4.5	5
6	Gary Sheffield 4.1	Mariano Rivera 3.9	Derek Jeter 3.9	Derek Jeter 3.0	Johnny Damon 4.2	6
7	Mariano Rivera 4.0	Johnny Damon 3.4	Andy Pettite 3.7	Bobby Abreu 2.7	Alex Rodriguez 4.2	7
8	Derek Jeter 3.8	Robinson Cano 3.2	Johnny Damon 2.7	Andy Pettitte 2.1	Mariano Rivera 3.6	8
9		Melky Cabrera 3.0	Bobby Abreu 2.4		Andy Pettitte 3.4	9
10			Mariano Rivera 2.0		Hideki Matsui 2.7	10
11						11
12						12
13						13
14						14
15					Jorge Posada 1.5	15
16						16
17						17
	Bernie Williams -1.6

	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
1	Robinson Cano 8.1	CC Sabathia 6.4	Robinson Cano 8.4	Robinson Cano 6.6	Brett Gardner 4.2	1
2	Brett Gardner 7.4	Curtis Granderson 6.1	Hiroki Kuroda 5.2	Brett Gardner 4.2	Dellin Betances 3.7	2
3	CC Sabathia 4.8	Robinson Cano 5.8	Nick Swisher 4.0	Hiroki Kuroda 3.9	Jacoby Ellsbury 3.6	3
4	Curtis Granderson 4.4	Brett Gardner 4.1	Mark Teixeira 3.8	Ivan Nova 3.3	Masahiro Tanaka 3.1	4
5	Alex Rodriguez 4.2	Alex Rodriguez 4.0	Curtis Granderson 3.3	Mariano Rivera 2.4		5
6	Mark Teixeira 4.1	David Robertson 3.7	CC Sabathia 3.3	David Robertson 2.4		6
7	Nick Swisher 3.8	Mark Teixeira 3.4	Rafael Soriano 2.6	Andy Pettitte 2.2		7
8	Andy Pettitte 2.6	Mariano Rivera 2.9	Derek Jeter 2.2			8
9	Mariano Rivera 2.4		Andy Pettitte 2.2			9
10	Phil Hughes 2.1		David Phelps 2.2			10
11	Derek Jeter 1.7		Alex Rodriguez 2.2			11
12	Kerry Wood 1.5					12
13	Jorge Posada 1.3					13
14		Derek Jeter 1.4				14
15						15
16						16
17						17
				Derek Jeter -0.8	Derek Jeter -0.7

So, what do you think? Some real surprises.

No Yankee in those years had WAR of at least 10. Alex Rodriguez had 9.4 in both of his Yankee MVP seasons: 2005 and 2007.

Aaron Judge has 9.6 so far in 2024. Yankees with WAR at least 10:

Rk	Player	WAR	Season	Age	Team
1	Babe Ruth	14.1	1923	28	NYY
2	Babe Ruth	12.8	1921	26	NYY
3	Babe Ruth	12.6	1927	32	NYY
4	Lou Gehrig	11.9	1927	24	NYY
5	Babe Ruth	11.9	1920	25	NYY
6	Babe Ruth	11.4	1926	31	NYY
7	Babe Ruth	11.4	1924	29	NYY
8	Mickey Mantle	11.3	1957	25	NYY
9	Mickey Mantle	11.2	1956	24	NYY
10	Aaron Judge	10.5	2022	30	NYY
11	Babe Ruth	10.5	1931	36	NYY
12	Mickey Mantle	10.4	1961	29	NYY
13	Babe Ruth	10.3	1930	35	NYY
14	Babe Ruth	10.2	1928	33	NYY
15	Lou Gehrig	10.0	1934	31	NYY

Provided by Stathead.com: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 9/14/2024.

Jeter topped out at 8.0 in 1999, the only year in which he led the league in WAR.

Williams best: that 6.4 in 1995.

Pettitte had 8.4 in 1997.

Posada 5.9 in 2003.

Rivera 5.0 in 1996 his only season with more than 80 innings: 107 as the setup man to John Wetland. Rivera's best as a closer: 4.3 in 2008.