Gregorius pushes Jeter out of record books

In today’s game vs the Minnesota Twins, Yankees’ shortstop Didi Gregorius has pushed Derek Jeter out of the record books. Gregorius has replaced Jeter as the Yankee shortstop with the most home runs in one season.

Derek Jeter set a record for most home runs in a season by Yankee shortstops in 1999 when he hit 24 dingers in the season in which the Yankees also won the World Series by sweeping the Atlanta Braves.

Despite missing almost the entire first month of the season, Gregorius still became the first shortstop in team history with at least 20 homers in back-to-back seasons, and he ranks third on the Yankees this season with 84 RBIs.

In today’s day game vs the Twins, Gregorius hit a three-run dinger to right center field and took Brett Gardner and Gary Sanchez with him to set the record at 25.

Last year, Gregorius spent most of the time in the bottom of the lineup, but this year he is thriving in the meat of it. Manager Joe Girardi: “We lost some hitters that we expected to hit in the middle of the order from injuries and Didi has stepped in and done a fabulous job. [It’s] just really impressive what he’s done. The home runs, the RBIs, the big hits that he’s had, the outstanding defense. … He’s had a really good year.

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When the Yankees acquired Didi in a trade in 2014, most Yankee fans were not happy. They expressed their disappointment in statements like “cannot hit”, “worthless”, “nobody”, etc. Most of them will have changed their stance in the meantime.