#Yankees mailbag: Did Derek Jeter get too much glory?

Throughout his career, Derek Jeter was never the Yankees’ best player [but] gets treated as if he was. Go back and look year by year. … He never got A-Rod type money from [Brian] Cashman because he never had the numbers. Why is Jeter treated in such rarefied air — longevity? ­ — Joey Scharr

What game were you watching? Pickleball?

First ballot Hall of Famer. Sixth on the all-time hit list (3,465) who won five Gold Glove awards at a premium position. Fourteen-time All-Star. Five-time World Series winner, four before Alex Rodriguez arrived in The Bronx. Never the best player on the Yankees during his career? Who was better?

Can we expect Gary Sanchez to have another year with a .250 batting average? Yankees are saying what a great hitter he is. Where are the stats to back that claim? — Paul Bickel

If Sanchez provides the power he has during parts of the past four seasons, the Yankees would accept the career .246 hitter batting .250. Even more so after Sanchez has hit .211 the past two seasons in 195 games, when he was hindered by lower body injuries.

Patient talent evaluators use 1,500 big league at-bats to judge what a hitter is. Sanchez has 1,393 big league at-bats with a .246 average, 105 homers, 262 RBIs and a very respectable .846 OPS.

So, Sanchez is fast approaching the time in his career in which he will likely settle into what he has been so far: an elite power bat that might never hit the .278 he did in 2017 — when he slugged 33 homers, drove in 90 runs and posted an .876 OPS.

The better question might be: Does Sanchez’s power negate his defense more than the .211 average the past two years?

What is the latest on DJLM. Haven’t seen any updates. — Brian Polivy

Will DJ be ready for Opening Day? — MimsandcoleSZN

Thursday, manager Aaron Boone said there was nothing new with DJ LeMahieu’s situation but did provide some information on the All-Star second baseman, who is quarantining at home after a positive COVID-19 test and is not with the club for spring training 2.0.

“DJ, as much as any player, I am going to feel good about where he is at. How much he takes care of himself and is ready to go. If anyone can handle being out at the start of camp it may be DJ,’’ Boone said. “He worked tirelessly during the quarantine down in Tampa. He was ready to go, and he doesn’t feel sick. It is not something that has wiped him out. I do feel good about the player being able to pick up once it is time for him to come back.’’

As for Opening Day, July 23, that isn’t known at this time.

How has Jasson Dominguez been developing? — Yankees 23

Like every minor leaguer in baseball who isn’t part of the spring training 2.0 roster, Dominguez hasn’t been allowed to work out at the Yankees’ minor league complex in Tampa or their facility in the Dominican Republic. Anything the Yankees’ $5 million investment, made last July 2, is doing is on his own.

Will Masahiro Tanaka be ready for Opening Day? — Johnny

That depends on how his recovery from a concussion progresses. As of Friday, he hadn’t thrown since getting hit by a 112-mph drive off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton last Saturday in a simulated game.

Knowing how cautious MLB treats concussion issues, the call here is Tanaka won’t be ready by July 23.

Do you think the facial hair ban will be finally lifted this year? It is about time. — Jason Molina

In an age when MLB mandated all 30 teams attach the Nike swoosh to the front of the jerseys, anything is possible. But the Steinbrenner family has done a lot to honor their father, who didn’t allow facial hair below the mouth and hair that touched the collar of the jersey in the back. They renamed the spring training complex in Tampa George M. Steinbrenner Field and a big mural of Steinbrenner beyond the right-field seats at Yankee Stadium can’t be missed.

I would say it’s 6 ½-1 against the facial hair ban being lifted.

With minor league baseball canceled for the 2020 season, where will Trevor Hauver, Austin Wells and Beck Way play? — Chris Fiegler

Nowhere.

With the minor league seasons canceled due to COVID-19 and the Yankees’ facilities in Tampa off limits to minor leaguers not included in the 60-man player pool for spring training 2.0, the three draft picks have to wait until 2021 to start their professional careers.

Will the Yankees go with a six-man rotation? — Gerald Avoletta

Everything is in play when it comes to how the Yankees will handle their rotation in a very different 60-game schedule. However, before they employ that strategy, they are more likely to use a reliever to start games or piggy-back relievers. And if Tanaka isn’t ready at the beginning of the season, the Yankees would need two pitchers to get to a six-man rotation, so that isn’t likely.