Derek Jeter.

It’s not an idea any Yankee fan is likely happy with, but the reality of the situation is that at some point sooner than later, Derek Jeter won’t be the New York Yankees shortstop.

Don’t get confused: this isn’t a “Move Derek Jeter to the outfield,” piece. This is merely exploring the idea of a future time when the bleacher creatures’ call of “Derek Jeter,” will be replaced with something far less comforting.

We’ll hit on three players with little to no major league service time, each of which represent replacing Jeter within a certain timeframe. The “Right Now,” player, obviously, is the best internal candidate to fill in for Jeter right now should an injury occur, and could take over, theoretically, if Jeter were to leave after his current contract expires. The “Later,” guy represents somebody who could be a viable option in 2-3 years, while the “Much Later,” character is a possibility should Jeter leave in about 4 years.

For the sake of my sanity, we won’t get into any trade candidates or potential free agents (sorry Hanley Ramirez wet-dreamers).

Right Now: Ramiro Pena

Most people should be familiar with Ramiro after this last season. He garnered 115 ABs at the major league level posting a .287 batting average and, while encouraging, it was boosted by a high-for-him BABIP. But let’s be realistic: Pena’s offense is never likely to be much more than average, if that. Where Ramiro really shines is on the defensive side of the ball, flashing some nice leather at short and the hot corner to the tune of 1.2 and 12.5 UZR/150, respectively. These numbers are generated in some small samples, but they back up his reputation and it’s reasonable to assume they’re representative of his abilities. If Pena could provide league average offense while playing plus defense, he could be a valuable shortstop.

Later: Eduardo Nunez

Nunez is a guy who got some press last Spring Training along with Ramiro Pena when beat writers were trying to find something to write about. Maybe all the attention made something click for Nunez who had a career year at Trenton, posting a .782 OPS. Baseball America rated his infield arm as the best in the Yankees’ system but TotalZone doesn’t particularly like his defense otherwise, however, giving him -8 runs below average total over the last 3 years. He’s shown a bit on speed on the basepaths, stealing 19 bases last year at a 73.0 percent success rate.

One thing about Nunez’s offensive year: he came to the Yankees as a switch-hitter, but during his 2006 season gave it up and changed to batting only right-handed. If we view his 2007 season as the beginning of the “new,” Eduardo Nunez, he’s showed steady improvement increasing his OPS each year and finding a bit of pop to go along with that (.055 ISO in ’07, .113 and .111 in ’08 and ’09 respectively). To put it simply: he’s been trending upwards for the last three years and if it continues, he could be a good offensive shortstop who doesn’t kill you with his glove.

Much Later: Jose Pirela

Picked up in the same signing period and out of the same country as Jesus Montero (Venezuela), Pirela finished his first full season at Low-A Charleston this last year as a 19-year old and more than held his own. He showed a good eye for a young international player (8.3 BB%) and coupled that with plus contact skills (.295 batting average). Unfortunately, Pirela possesses little pop at this time, hitting exactly zero home runs last season (and the season before in the GCL) while slugging .381. Power is usually the last tool to develop for young players, but even at his peak he’d probably be very lucky to hit 10 homers. Jose’s defense leaves something to be desired at this point in time, and hopefully over the next couple of years he can improve on it.

So much of Pirela is projection at this point. He’ll be among the youngest players in the Florida State League at High-A Tampa next year. High-A ball is typically the level where you find out the most about your prospects and their viability. Last year we learned Jesus Montero’s bat was for real. Maybe this year we find out Pirela’s going to be our answer to a looming shortstop problem. We can only wait and see.

These are just a few options. If you told me five years from now none of these guys were playing shortstop for the Yankees, I wouldn’t be surprised. For context, if you had told me just three years ago that the 2010 Yankees outfield would be Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner, my responses (in order) would have been: “What?” “Seriously?!” and “Who the hell is Brett Gardner?”. While Ramiro Pena, Eduardo Nunez and Jose Pirela are by no means locks to be the Yankees shortstop of the future, they represent our current best in-house possibilities.

Who will replace Derek when he fades away?

- Props to Louis Winthorpe III for also contributing to this post