mostly because larkin went to college while jeter made the bigs at like 20 years old. and then the reds for some reason initially thought kurt stillwell was going to be their shortstop of the future, until larkin quickly made it clear he was the much better option. while they were actually playing major league baseball, larkin and jeter are very close comps.
larkin's career ops = .815
jeter's career ops = .817
larkin was a better defensive shortstop than jeter imo.
very similar players.