Derek Jeter told Yankees about retirement plans hours before announcement

When Derek Jeter announced on Wednesday that he is going to retire after the 2014 MLB season, very few people were shocked. The Yankee captain is 39 and has struggled with a foot injury over the past two seasons. The Yankees may have seen this coming, but that doesn’t mean Jeter told them about the plans long before telling us.

According to the NY Post, Jeter called Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner on Wednesday morning to let him know that he was planning to make the announcement on Facebook.

“Derek called Hal Steinbrenner personally this morning and told him the news,” a source reportedly told The Post. “It was a very calm, respectful phone call. Derek wanted to do it his way, as Derek often does, by announcing on Facebook. He said he wanted, out of respect for the Steinbrenner family, to give Hal a heads up. They were the only two who knew about this within the Yankees organization until Derek told his fans on Facebook just after 2pm.

“Nobody within the Yankee organization is surprised, Derek is nearly 40, he is coming off a tough injury and he’s a guy who likes to go out on top. But there is huge sadness he is retiring. Derek is an icon, he’s in the category of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, he’s an irreplaceable person, and an irreplaceable player.”

It certainly makes sense that Jeter would keep quiet about his plans until the day of the announcement. In the era of Twitter, Facebook and countless other social media sites, news almost always leaks. This was the only way he knew he could share the announcement himself.