Derek Jeter isn’t far removed from a front office role after retiring as a player in 2014, the year before the Statcast era began, and he says the league has shifted too far towards the use of analytics and advanced data.
“It’s all analytics. Analytics have taken over the game,” Jeter said on a recent episode of the Drink Champs podcast. “I always think any time you make a decision, you want to have as much information as you possibly can. If you say no to that, then you’re not doing your job. But I also think you can’t measure everything.”
It certainly has become a focal point of baseball, as teams with some of the most beefed-up analytics departments enjoying consistent success like the Astros and Dodgers, and small-market teams like the Rays use it to remain competitive despite a microscopic payroll compared to other teams in their division. But Jeter would like to see a more happy marriage between analytics and how the game was viewed and played when he was still in pinstripes.
“Joe Torre always used to say, ‘You can’t measure a person’s heartbeat.’ People have heartbeats,” Jeter said. “You can’t necessarily take a player from Milwaukee and plug him in New York and think the same thing is gonna happen. There’s more pressures. You have to get to know people. Analytics can’t measure everything, and I think the game has gotten very, very analytical.”
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