Fox Sports put Derek Jeter in the starting lineup of its "Ultimate 21st Century World Series Roster," then wrote a sentence admitting he probably shouldn't be there.
Here's Fox's own framing: "While Derek Jeter played on seven World Series teams in his career, he doesn't get extra credit for that here." Great. So by Fox's own numbers, Jeter's 21st-century case is four World Series home runs spread across four different years (2000, 2001, 2003, 2009) and a .324/.361/.510 line over 109 plate appearances. That's a good player showing up repeatedly. It doesn't justify handing someone a starting shortstop spot on a list of the century's best.
Especially not when Corey Seager is sitting on the bench. Seager won World Series MVP twice, in 2020 and 2023, and he's the only player ever to do it in both leagues. He has the rings, the hardware, the single-series dominance to back it up. He's the better shortstop by every measure that matters, and Fox stashed him behind a nostalgia pick. Jeter starting over Seager is a choice made by name recognition.
Now the one that actually stings. Randy Johnson went 3-0 with a 1.04 ERA in the 2001 World Series and shared MVP honors with Curt Schilling in one of the best Fall Classics anyone has ever seen. That's a single series where a man pitched like a god and dragged a franchise to a title. Any list calling itself the ultimate 21st-century roster should be able to point to Johnson instantly, no searching required. Fox's piece makes you work to figure out whether he's even on the pitching staff. A roster that can't make the greatest World Series pitching run of the era impossible to miss has already lost the argument.
Fox's logic, presumably, is that it favored players with multiple rings and iconic moments over guys with one monster series. Except Fox blew up its own standard. Barry Bonds made this roster off a single World Series appearance, in 2002, that the Giants lost to the Angels. One series. One loss. He's in, and deservedly so, because he was unhittable. So the "you need more than one great series" rule clearly isn't the rule, which means there's no consistent reason Johnson's 1.04 should get buried while Jeter's four scattered homers get a starting job.
Plenty of the roster is right. Madison Bumgarner as the anchor is unimpeachable. Freddie Freeman, the first player with two World Series walk-offs, belongs. So do Chase Utley, George Springer, David Ortiz, Hideki Matsui. The hits are confident. It's the biggest names where Fox loses the plot, leaning on the Yankee captain's legend while leaving the era's most dominant October arm as an afterthought.
This is an editorial call, and it's the wrong one. If you're going to downgrade Jeter in your own copy, finish the thought and bench him.
