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Derek Jeter will sit out his first game of the season. Just a routine day off.

YANKEES
Curtis Granderson CF
Nick Swisher RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Eric Chavez DH
Russell Martin C
Jayson Nix SS
 
Pitching: Hiroki Kuroda (3-4, 3.56)

For all those who continue to second-guess the Michael Pineda trade now that Jose Campos is also hurt, I’d like to direct you to a nugget of information I was reminded of during a random discussion with colleague Jon Lane the other day that should, hopefully once and for all, prove that you can’t judge a trade in its initial aftermath.

I present to you Exhibit A: Nicholas Thompson Swisher.

Chances are, you love Nick Swisher. He certainly loves the fans (and playing in the Big Apple), and he’s been a key contributor to the Yankees since the day he put on pinstripes. And right now, the Chicago White Sox brass are probably still kicking themselves for both ends of the trades that both brought him to and sent him away from the Windy City.

But in 2008, it was Yankees fans

Introducing Players A and B, and their 2012 numbers through Wednesday's games:

Player A
Stats: .232 BA, 5 HR, 19 RBI, .683 OPS
Salary: $180 million over eight years
Skinny: Average has steadily declined since posting a .353 clip in 2008, but power numbers and glove remain at elite levels.

Player B
Stats: .212BA, 1 HR, 14 RBI, .505 OPS
Salary: Approximately $254 million over 10 years
Skinny: Annually rated as one of the best players in the world and a bona fide threat to Barry Bonds’ all-time home run record. Receiving the benefit of the doubt by those waiting with confidence he’ll bust out. And waiting, and waiting, and waiting ….

Player A is Mark Teixeira. Player B is Albert Pujols. Teixeira has been affected by a bronchial infection since last month, which could

When Ivan Nova is on the mound, good things tend to happen for the Yankees. Consider:

• If given a lead, Nova is near unbreakable. Entering Monday night against the Orioles, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, Nova is 21-1 in 33 starts pitching with an advantage and Yankees are 28-5 in those games.

• More from Elias: The Yankees haven’t made an error with Nova pitching in 37.2 innings this season.

• The Yankees are 5-1 in Nova’s starts. Last season, their 19-8 record was the second-best for an American League team in starts by one pitcher. The Tigers were 25-9 when Justin Verlander was on the mound.

• Nova and the Yankees starters have stepped up their games in May. Nova comes off his finest start May 8 when he held the Rays to two runs on six hits

Tonight (YES, 7 p.m.)
Ivan Nova (4-1, 5.02) vs. Jason Hammel (4-1, 2.09)

Tuesday (My9, 7 p.m.)
CC Sabathia (5-0, 3.51) vs. Wei-Yin Chen (3-0, 2.68)

Follow Jon Lane on Twitter: @JonLaneNYC

Yankees legend and icon Andy Pettitte is back in the Bronx. After the 2010 season, he swiftly retired seemingly with a lot left to offer the game of baseball. However, he has returned to give the Yankees and the fans everything that he has left in his soon-to-be 40-year-old tank. Pettitte is one of the few players that fans wished they could have seen just one more time in pinstripes, and now he's giving them almost an entire season.

“There's going to be a real warmth in the stands today about him coming back,” Joe Girardi said about the atmosphere that will be in the Stadium in the series finale against the Mariners.

For the fans of the Yankees, this is a very special treat. Pettitte is a once-in-a-generation type pitcher for an organization.

To these people, he is the southern

One of Joe Girardi’s biggest goals this season was to rest all of his regulars, especially Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, more regularly. In setting that goal, Girardi touted the ability of Eduardo Nunez to be a super-utility player, one who could fill in at multiple positions without the team missing a beat.

But after just 31 games and a handful of costly errors all around the diamond by Nunez, what must Girardi be thinking as he watches that ability often become a liability?

Nunez had another rough game on Thursday, this time at third base, where he made errors in consecutive innings that accounted for both of the Rays’ runs. Yes, the Yankees recovered to win 5-2 and those were the only two runs the Rays scored, but the miscues put CC Sabathia in an unnecessary hole early

Fifteen years later, the vision of a spooked Mariano Rivera is still embedded in my cranium. One week into the 1997 season, Rivera surrendered a 464-foot homer to Mark McGwire and blew his second save in four chances. Rivera was the new closer for the Yankees, but he was failing in the ninth inning.

As Rivera fielded questions about letting a 1-0 lead disappear at Yankee Stadium, his voice cracked. He searched for the proper words, but he was really searching for the right answers, too. The more Rivera spoke, the more obvious it became that he was a bewildered soul. He was the closer who wasn’t closing.

“I think I need something to get me going,” Rivera said at the time. “I think mentally to get me going I have to try to think like last year. Just think it’s

Seriously? One blown save and there are those, albeit a small segment, who don’t believe David Robertson is cut out to be “Mariano Rivera’s replacement?”

The vast majority of fans are behind Robertson and Robertson expressed his gratitude over Twitter. Of course, there were others who believed AM (after Mariano) was the end of the world. My guess is that similar folk braced for Rivera’s decline each time he blew a save.

Look, there will never be another Mariano Rivera. David Robertson will never be Mariano Rivera’s replacement, nor will he be the next Mariano Rivera. David Robertson will be the next David Robertson and will create his own niche in baseball. In fact, he already did as the most dominant relief pitcher in the game. B.J. Upton’s sacrifice