David Sabino, ESPN Stats & Information 9y

Red Sox, Yankees in similar spot at SS

The Red Sox and Yankees have had dramatically different experiences at shortstop over the past decade-plus, but the age-old rivals enter 2015 in a strikingly similar situation at the position.

Both teams are counting on high-potential youngsters -- 24-year-old Didi Gregorius in New York and 22-year-old Xander Bogaerts in Boston -- to take over what is arguably the most important position on the field.

Before we move forward, however, let’s pause for a look back at where they’ve been.

Red Sox: Nine shortstops since 2004

Since 1996, just two players have spent more than 100 games at shortstop for the Yankees: Derek Jeter (2,659) and Eduardo Nuñez (152). Over that same span, the Red Sox have had 11 different shortstops play at least 100 games at the position.

Nine of those players followed the departure of Nomar Garciaparra (956 games) midway through 2004, defying conventional baseball wisdom (stability up the middle) in coinciding with the greatest era in Back Bay baseball since Babe Ruth called Jersey Street home.

In the 10-plus seasons after the Red Sox dealt Garciaparra, Larry Lucchino & Co. displayed mastery in sewing together a patchwork of left-side infielders, including World Series-winning shortstops Orlando Cabrera (a rental), Julio Lugo (a journeyman) and Stephen Drew (a shadow of his former self), all of whom were in the first year of service with the Sox.

Yankees: Jeter’s decline

For a majority of his career, Jeter was a rock for the Bronx Bombers, piling up Hall of Fame-worthy feats while collecting championship jewelry. The past few seasons, his decline was pronounced.

Always a target of sabermetrician ire, even to the statistical layman The Captain was clearly more a liability than an asset in three of the final four seasons of his career. Injuries cost him all but 17 games in 2013 and he managed full-season career lows in most aggregate offensive categories in 2014.

In fact, Yankees shortstops posted their worst slugging percentage, runs total and at-bats per walk rate since 1990, when Alvaro Espinoza primarily played there. Jeter was at that spot for 78 percent of New York’s innings.

Yankees shortstops also were awful with the leather last season, setting a franchise low (dating back to 1903) of 3.2 chances per game. Their 64 double plays turned in 2014 were the fewest for New York since 1916, seven years before the original Yankee Stadium was built and just five years after they became known as the Yankees.

The future: Gregorius and Bogaerts

The franchises have pushed the reset button, coincidentally with players who both hail from the former Netherlands Antilles.

With Pablo Sandoval entrenched at third base, Bogaerts (Aruba) is finally able to slide back to shortstop to provide the consistency Boston has lacked there on a daily basis.

In the Bronx, the newly acquired and less-heralded Gregorius (Curaçao) is facing the unenviable task of replacing the legendary No. 2 while playing for his third big league team in four seasons.

Both have great potential, but have very different shoes to fill. In terms of their big league production thus far, they’re starting from strikingly comparable places.

Similar to 1996, when Jeter and Garciaparra both became regulars, it will be fun to see if this new blood can rekindle the game’s most storied rivalry.

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