Didi Gregorius is 24 years old. Raised in Curacao. Deft glove. Hits left, though not, so far, particularly well. Terrific athlete. Upstanding young man. Does the three-way trade thing every couple years.

And now, he's the next shortstop of the New York Yankees, which makes him, you know, that guy.

Somebody had to be.

Nobody will call him the next Derek Jeter, though, actually, somebody did once. Kevin Towers, then the general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, acquired Gregorius from the Cincinnati Reds about this time in 2012 and told reporters in Arizona, “When I saw him he reminded me of a young Derek Jeter.”

So, there you go. Gregorius could indeed be the next Jeter, insofar as he will be expected to stand at shortstop for the New York Yankees come opening day, the first time someone other than Jeter will top the depth chart at the position since the mid-'90s. As for the rest of the “next Deter Jeter” part, well, he’s probably not that.

The free-agent market was flat for shortstops, unless one considered Hanley Ramirez to still be a shortstop. The team that signed him, the Boston Red Sox, did not. Troy Tulowitzki might be had at some point, but that has not materialized, and neither has a market for Starlin Castro.

It left the Yankees with 32-year-old Brendan Ryan, not much else, and an empty locker where Jeter used to dress.

So, by Friday morning, the Yankees had cobbled together enough moveable parts and enough trade partners – the Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers – to at least spackle over their shortstop hole. According to reports (and Fox Sports was the first to put together the early clues), the three-way trade looks like this:

The Yankees get Gregorius from the Diamondbacks.

The Tigers get right-handed starter Shane Greene from the Yankees.

The Diamondbacks get left-handed starter Robbie Ray and an infield prospect from the Tigers.

In a nutshell, the Tigers acquire a starting pitcher to fill some of the innings that could be left by Max Scherzer, the Diamondbacks get a young starting pitcher to begin the rebuild of a miserable pitching staff, and the Yankees get the guy who’ll stand where Jeter did for a couple decades.

Gregorius will be the best defensive shortstop the Yankees have had in at least that long. He’ll also be the guy who was beaten out in Arizona by Chris Owings, hit reasonably against right-handed pitching, and who last season was almost helpless against left-handed pitching (and yet still hit lefties better than Brendan Ryan did.)

Forgetting some of that for a moment, he does, by all accounts, possess the right personality to be the next shortstop in the Bronx. Since bringing him in the three-way that, among other things, sent Shin-Soo Choo to Cincinnati and Trevor Bauer to Cleveland, the Diamondbacks were impressed by Gregorius’ work ethic, his character and his fearlessness. They simply found a better guy in Owings. And new general manager Dave Stewart had to start turning young position players into young pitchers if the Diamondbacks were going to compete again one day in the NL West. They also are expected to receive from the Tigers minor leaguer Domingo Leyba, a 19-year-old Dominican shortstop who batted .323 in A-ball last season.

The Yankees weren’t necessarily in a position to trade away starting pitching, but filling the place left by Jeter was a priority. There also is more pitching available, both via free agents – Scherzer, Jon Lester, James Shields, among them – and by trade – Jeff Samardzija, for one.

In what has been a quiet winter for them so far, the Yankees, if nothing else, went and got, you know, that guy.

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