TAMPA, Fla. -- It is all but a certainty that for the first time in 12 years, the New York Yankees will open a season without Derek Jeter at shortstop.

Jeter came up too sore to play in a minor league game Sunday morning, a day after having taken four at-bats as the designated hitter in a Triple-A game and running at half-speed to first base. In the words of general manager Brian Cashman, "The reality is beginning to set in."

"I don't anticipate him starting the season on the [roster]," Cashman said. "I can read his face, and his face today tells me the reality is starting to sink in that this disabled list situation might be necessary."

The Yankees have been preparing for this since Tuesday, when Jeter was scratched from the lineup at the last minute after experiencing stiffness and soreness in his left ankle, which was fractured in a playoff game last October and surgically repaired with screws and a metal plate.

Since then, Jeter has taken a cortisone shot, which provided temporary relief, and the Yankees decided to play him only in minor league games for the final 10 days of spring training, allowing them to backdate his DL stay to March 22.

That means that if and when he is officially disabled, the earliest Jeter would be able to play in a major league game is April 6, when the Yankees face the Tigers in Detroit in the fifth game of the regular season. And it means Eduardo Nunez is likely to start at shortstop for the Yankees when they open their season against the Boston Red Sox in the Bronx on April 1.

"This is no surprise," Cashman said. "The only newsworthy event out of it is we were hoping he would be ready by Opening Day and more likely than not he won't be. But in terms of the injury progression and what he's recovering from, there's nothing new here other than the fact that on the back-end of the more workload that he's got, he's experiencing soreness. You have to react to that and back off, give it a little more time."

Although Cashman said Jeter's goal remains Opening Day, "I think our goal is now more realistically April 6 at the earliest."

Jeter was terse with the media when he arrived at his locker at 8:30 Sunday morning.

"I got nothing for you guys today," he said.

Asked if he would play in a game Sunday morning, Jeter said, "I don't know."

Cashman pinpointed Jeter's discomfort at the back of his ankle, just above the heel. On Tuesday, Jeter had located the pain as being in the front of his ankle.