After Derek Jeter’s season-ending injury in Game 1, Yankees manager Joe Girardi immediately proclaimed that Jayson Nix was going to take over at shortstop. Nix is something of an unknown, though -- what kind of shortstop is he?
Jayson Nix: Sort-of shortstop
Well, he’s not really a shortstop. At least, he wasn’t for much of his professional career. Here are the number of games Nix has started at short over his career in the minors and majors combined over the years:
2001: 40
2002: 0
2003: 0
2004: 0
2005: 0
2006: 0
2007: 0
2008: 0
2009: 22
2010: 2
2011: 8
2012: 18
That’s 90 professional games -- 35 of which were in the majors. The 29-year-old Nix has spent much more time at third and second over his career, so it’s still something of an experiment to install him as a starting shortstop.
There’s nothing shakier than single season UZR, unless you’re talking about partial-season UZR, but it doesn’t hurt to look. Nix’s UZR/150 in his time at short in the majors: -33.0. That’s a half-run better than B.J. Upton at short for his career! Which ... huh.
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