Derek Jeter says Roy Halladay was the toughest pitcher he ever faced
It takes a Hall of Famer to recognize a Hall of Famer. They were inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in separate years, but Derek Jeter and Roy Halladay’s careers were intertwined for 11 years as fierce AL East opponents.
Sports social media was abuzz earlier this week when five-time World Series champ Jeter launched himself into the Twittersphere and Instagram for the first time. He even posted an Instagram Live where he fielded questions from fans.
One query was about the toughest and best pitchers he faced. Lo and behold, Halladay’s name was mentioned as Jeter’s toughest opponent during his 20-year career with the Yankees.
Derek Jeter says Roy Halladay was the toughest pitcher he ever faced
His .234 average and .571 career OPS against Halladay were by far his lowest against the 15 pitchers he faced more than 60 times. He had a .740 OPS or better against 11 of those pitchers pic.twitter.com/ujzrmtdkAi
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 31, 2022
“Toughest pitcher I faced? Toughest pitcher on me was Roy Halladay. Couldn’t figure him out,” Jeter said on Instagram.
During his final year in pinstripes, Jeter echoed similar thoughts about the longtime Blue Jay.
“Roy is someone that, every single time we came here to face him, he had a lot of success against us. He’s been one of the toughest pitchers that I’ve seen throughout my career,” Jeter told John Lott of the National Post in 2014.
As AL East rivals, Halladay and Jeter faced each other a tonne during that 11-year span. After David Ortiz and Johnny Damon, Doc squared off against Jeter for the third-most times in his career with 104 plate appearances between the two.
Halladay made a career out of carving up the Yankees, so it’s no surprise he held Jeter to a .234/.294/.277 slash line. Doc gave up 22 hits to Jeter over the years, but no home runs, and the .277 slugging percentage against Jeter was second-lowest among all opponents with at least 50 PA’s against Halladay.
It wasn’t just Jeter, either. The entire Yankees roster could barely muster a hit off Halladay during his 12-year stint with the Blue Jays. Since 1969, he ranks in the top ten in ERA, wins, strikeouts, games started, WHIP and opponent batting average among all starting pitchers.
During all his years at the plate, Jeter never collected more than four hits a season off Halladay, and Doc only gave up four extra-base hits total off “The Captain.” During this time, Jeter was an All-Star in 10 of 11 seasons, while both rivals resided in the American League East.
By far, Jeter’s lowest career slugging percentage against any opposing pitcher (with at least 50 plate appearances) was number 32 for the Blue Jays. The Yankees legend also mentioned Pedro Martinez as the best pitcher he faced, and Jeter owned a .256/.347/.395 slash line against the three-time Cy Young winner.
Looking at the GameScore metric, three of Halladay’s top 10 regular season starts were against Jeter and the Bronx Bombers. One of Doc’s final starts for the Blue Jays was a complete game one-hit shutout against the Yankees on September 4, 2009.
The Yankees were juggernaut during the late 90s and throughout the 2000s, but Halladay rose to the occasion every single start against New York. Despite having a subpar supporting cast, the late Blue Jays legend performed his best against some of the best hitters of that era.
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