Will Derek Jeter's Glove Keep the Yanks From Signing Mark Teixeira?

Derek Jeter's defense has always been a controversial topic, and the mere suggestion that he's less than perfect in the field is usually results in getting called all sorts of nasty names by Yankee loyalists. That said, I'm rubber, you're glue -- let's do this.

Joel Sherman ponders in his blog for the New York Post how long it'll be before the Yankees bite the bullet and move Jeter off shortstop, and whether that decision should affect their free agent plans this winter:

But watching Alberto Gonzalez play shortstop while Jeter nursed a strained quad recently was eye-opening for just how much more range he had at shortstop and how much truer his arm was than Jeter's. No one knows if Gonzalez will ever hit and his chance of ever being the offensive player Jeter has been is about zero percent. But I am at least wondering if the best Yankee team of the near future has Gonzalez at shortstop and Jeter at first. [...]

[F]or everyone who is putting free-agent-to-be Mark Teixeira on the Yankee roster for the 2009 season, I keep asking this: Where are you parking Jeter, Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez as they age deep into their thirties on their current contracts and likely lose their abilities to play where they are playing now?

Of course, there are more places to stash than first base: with Johnny Damon's contract up this year and Bobby Abreu's up in 2009, the Yankees could probably find a spot in the outfield. Posada seems limited to first base and DH once he finally comes out from behind the plate, so it'd make sense to keep first open for him in a couple of years.