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I don't know what year you're looking at for expansion, but if an expansion draft were held today (2009 offseason), who knows, the Yankees might very well leave Derek Jeter unprotected. Why? Because of his $20MM contract and the fact that the contract will soon be coming up for renewal at numbers that only the Yankees can afford to pay. An expansion team would have to balance having a market draw like Jeter against paying that much to one person when they have so many other needs and holes to fill. The Yankees would have to balance the risk of losing Jeter against protecting one of their younger, less expensive talents. Jeter might also decide to sit out rather than play for an expansion team (not likely, but it could happen). Or the Yankees might be willing to compensate the expansion team with an extra player as reward for picking some other Yankee besides Jeter in the expansion draft.
Bottom line, it's not as unlikely as you might think.
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