With Derek Jeter Gone, Who Is the New King of New York Baseball?

Can we all agree that we can stop asking who's going to replace Derek Jeter as the "Face of Baseball"?

We should be able to. Depending on where you stand, that's either a question without an answer or a question with two reasonable answers. Officially, it's Buster Posey. Unofficially, it's Mike Trout. In sticking with the body-parts theme, the Face of Baseball label is in good hands with either of them.

However, the Face of Baseball isn't the only throne that Jeter vacated when he hung up his spikes last fall. The longtime New York Yankees shortstop vacated another post that neither Posey nor Trout can fill:

The King of New York Baseball.

Yeah, I know. That sounds like fodder for an insufferable New York newspaper column or talk-radio segment. Actually, it was one of the latter recently. So, yeah.

And yet, it's hard to roll your eyes at the idea when viewed in a historical context.

Go back to any year in the last century, and you'll find the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Reggie Jackson and Dwight Gooden occupying the throne. By the time the crown was finally passed to Jeter, it had graced the heads of the biggest of big shots.

And though it can be argued that crown didn't belong to Jeter for every season of his 20-year career, it certainly applied early and often. Michael Silver of Sports Illustrated slapped it on Jeter in only his fourth full season in 1999. By 2014, he bore the title on the heel of his cleats:

At any rate, now what? More to the point, who's next?

Well, it should go without saying that the next King of New York Baseball has to be really good at baseball. That's pretty much non-negotiable. Being a winner also helps. Then there's the personality test. Be it Jeter's classiness or Ruth's brashness, a certain charisma is a must. And last but not least, goodness knows he can't be overwhelmed by his surroundings.

In so many words, Jeter's successor has to be like The Dude in Los Angeles. He's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there.

So, that's what we're looking for. Now all we need are some candidates from the two New York clubs.

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press/Associated Press

Naturally, we have to start with the Yankees. Beyond being Jeter's old team, they're the Yankees. Being the Yankees is what they do. They always lead the league in YAR (Yankee-ness above replacement).

However, therein lies the weird part about these days' Yankees: By Yankee standards, they're not very interesting.

More so than in any year in recent memory, the Yankees are leaning on "meh" players in 2015. Didi Gregorius and Stephen Drew are just lucky to be there. Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Chase Headley and Andrew Miller are good, but nobody ever accused them of being charismatic. CC Sabathia, Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira were stars once, but not anymore.

Once you get past names like those, you're left with only a few pinstriped contenders for Jeter's crown: Alex Rodriguez, Masahiro Tanaka and Dellin Betances. 

By virtue of his impressive statistical track record and his Tony Montana-like rise to baseball super-villain status, A-Rod definitely has the most star power of the three. He's such a huge star that even his bodily functions are headline fodder.

But since numbers are a must ... well, that's a potential snag. A-Rod is coming back from a year-long performance-enhancing-drug suspension, and he couldn't even manage an .800 OPS in the two seasons before that. If he doesn't find a way to turn back the clock, he'll be more like the Jester of New York Baseball.

Ted S. Warren/Associated Press

After debuting with a 2.77 ERA last year, Tanaka is a much better bet to put up numbers. And the crowds will love him if he does. Every start the right-hander made in 2014 was a Fernando Valenzuela-like event, and his eccentric side made it all the more easy to build up his aura.

But of course, Tanaka will have to stay healthy. Given that the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow may be a ticking time bomb, that's less than a sure thing.

And so, we get to Betances.

Given that he's a 6'8" behemoth with a high-90s fastball who's coming off a 1.40 ERA in 2014, he certainly has a larger-than-life vibe on the field. And as Ian O'Connor of ESPN New York argued, he's a New York native and a homegrown Yankee product with just the kind of fresh face the organization needs to sell a departure from the old and crusty faces of more recent Yankees teams.

One problem, though: Betances is only a relief pitcher. No city inflates star power like New York, but even New York can only do so much to inflate the star power of a guy who doesn't play every day and only plays an inning at a time when he does.

So maybe the next King of New York Baseball won't come from the Yankees. Maybe he'll come from the Mets instead.

Rich Schultz/Getty Images

With the Yankees being who they are, suggesting that a Met could dominate the New York baseball landscape would come off as blatant trolling most years. But with the Yankees being unusually bland, it really doesn't take much to state the case for Mets Mania in 2015.

With the recent signings of Curtis Granderson and Michael Cuddyer along with the promotion of Travis d'Arnaud and the breakouts of Lucas Duda and Juan Lagares, the Mets have solid bats up and down their lineup. And by the second half of 2014, eventual National League Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom and fellow young right-hander Zack Wheeler were dominating atop the Mets rotation.

But if it's classic New York star power you're looking for, two other names stand out: David Wright and Matt Harvey.

One thing Wright has going for him is that he's basically the Mets' own Jeter these days. He's the team captain, and he doesn't take being a leader for granted. He also desperately wants to win, and believes that a lot of winning is about to happen. In New York, these are good qualities to have.

What Wright can contribute is a good question, however. He's 32 years old and coming off a year in which shoulder trouble contributed to his OPS dropping over 200 points from where it was in 2013. It could be that his window for earning the King of New York Baseball moniker has already passed.

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Harvey's window, meanwhile, may be about to become wider than ever.

The 25-year-old is so perfectly designed to be a New York superstar that you'd think he came out of the same New York lab as Captain America. With a 6'4" and 215-pound frame, a high-90s fastball and a trio of deadly secondary pitches, it's hard to imagine a more ideal pitcher.

Harvey is also right where he wants to be. He told David Amsden of Men's Journal in NSFW terms that he rather likes New York and inspired Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated to get all Bob Kane-y.

"In appearance and task, Harvey is the Dark Knight of Gotham," he wrote. "He is here because he believes he was born for it."

Harvey showed in 2013 that he has the goods to make New York love him back. Every start he made on the way to his 2.27 ERA increased the hype of #HarveyDay, and he might have won the National League Cy Young had his elbow not betrayed him and sent him to the operating table for Tommy John surgery.

A strong comeback is not guaranteed. But with Harvey well over a year removed from his operation, such a comeback is hardly unlikely. And if he can do it, there may be no stopping him from taking over New York.

But then again, you never know. Maybe the next King of New York Baseball hasn't even arrived yet.

Rather than Harvey, perhaps top prospect Noah Syndergaard will be the one on everyone's radar when he finally arrives. As a 6'6" behemoth with his own blistering fastball and superhero nickname, he could easily steal Harvey's spotlight if Harvey doesn't regain his 2013 form.

Or maybe Aaron Judge will beat him to the punch. The Yankees' top prospect is a 6'7" giant with a dangerous bat, and he knows how to use it. He's not likely to be along until 2016, but his arrival could see him quickly become New York's next big thing. Literally and figuratively.

But who knows, really? As easy as it is to round up the potential candidates to take Jeter's crown, there's no predicting who will take it and when. The next King of New York Baseball will not be coronated so much as he'll be slowly realized.

Whoever it is will have big cleats to fill. From Ruth to Gehrig to DiMaggio to Mantle to Mays to Jackson to Gooden to Jeter, the lineage of New York baseball royalty suggests something Mark Twain once said rings true.

“Make your mark in New York," he said, "and you are a made man.”

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.