After Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told Jeter at a dinner meeting three years back that his defense needed to improve, the GM and Jeter's agent, Casey Close, agreed Riley was the man for the job. Up front, understand that Riley is a paid Jeter advocate. I think there's so much determination inside of Derek that he can do it." But if he decides to go until he's 43, he'll do everything in his power to play the game at a high level and help the team through that time. If Derek decides at 41 he's already given his best years, then that's where it will end. If he decides to hang it up before, then that will be his decision. "I don't think anything can hold Derek back other than himself. Riley has trained a host of baseball and tennis stars. You're just changing your thought process without remembering what Derek did the year before. "Derek had one of his best statistical years in 2009," Riley said, "so if people are judging him on maybe his worst statistical year, I think that's blowing in the wind. Though Jeter has told Riley he will ultimately vacate his cherished shortstop position if asked - "Derek said he would do that and play another position if it was best for the team," Riley said - both the Captain and the trainer believe such a transition won't be required for a number of years. The trainer won't have to remind Jeter of this when they meet Monday in Tampa to review an intense offseason program that will start after Thanksgiving. "The desire to be the greatest," Riley said, "can never be turned down by Father Time." The trainer believes Jeter will join those golden oldies in Mariano Rivera's bullpen. Speaking from inside a Jeter camp that rarely opens a public window on its soul, especially during contract negotiations, Riley mentioned George Blanda, George Foreman, Dara Torres and Brett Favre as athletes who thrived after turning 40. "Yeah," he said, "I think it's very realistic." And in the wake of Jeter's worst statistical season, one inspiring many to wonder if the Captain is entering an advanced stage of decline, Riley was asked if it remained feasible to believe Jeter could play at a reasonably high level through 2017. When the shortstop met Riley after the 2007 season, he told the trainer he wanted to play another eight to 10 years. The 2010 season happened, a development coloring the ultra-delicate negotiations between the iconic franchise and iconic star and yet leaving Jeter more committed than ever to playing as many as seven more seasons, through his 43rd birthday and far beyond the reported three-year, eight-figure deal the Yanks are offering. But something not-so-funny happened on the way to another nine-figure score.
The shortstop could have filed away his completed $189 million contract and asked for $125 million to $150 million over five or six years, and the New York Yankees wouldn't have bothered to blink. Riley is the fitness guy who reshaped Jeter's body and game, who dumped the Captain into a hot tub time machine before - voila! - a 35-year-old Jeter made like a 25-year-old Jeter on his way to a long-lost fifth championship ring, or one for his princely thumb. If not, Riley would have at least gone down as the greatest trainer since Angelo Dundee.
If Derek Jeter's contract had expired after the 2009 season, Jason Riley might have been named the American League's Most Valuable Player.
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