Results tagged ‘ Andy Pettitte ’
Anything interesting happening with the Yankees?
Oh, just another day in paradise. When people ask, “What do you do during the offseason?”, my response is almost always that the Yankees don’t have an offseason. Sometimes the winter is more intense than the summer.
The Yankees completed one important piece of business on Monday, signing Andy Pettitte to a one-year, $5.5 million contract with multiple incentive levels. Obviously this is a huge pay cut from the guaranteed $16 million Pettitte made in ’07 and ’08, but this was as high as the Yankees were going to go.
Pettitte knew that it was time to make a decision, and $5.5 million — with the chance to make up to $12 million in incentives — sure beats $0 for sitting at home. With the addition of Pettitte to the 40-man roster, Chase Wright was designated for assignment.
One other tidbit: Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Hideki Matsui are all on track for now.
Now, on to the Joe Torre business, which is sending us all back in our own little time machines. Someone was asking me about my taxes and I actually slipped up and wrote the wrong year … and not even that usual January mistake, I fouled up two years. Seems like this book has us more focused on the ’07 Yankees than the current version.
A-Rod is supposedly laughing off the ‘A-Fraud’ stuff — and look, if you didn’t already know that Alex had some difficulty keeping a low profile, you weren’t paying attention. Some things haven’t changed — by the way, has anyone heard anything about Madonna lately?
Brian Cashman thinks the Yankees might rally around each other as a result of this latest controversy. Hey, you know this team. If it wasn’t this going into the spring, it’d probably be something else.
I want to reserve judgment on this book until I actually hold it in my hands, and based on what I’ve pieced together from excerpts floating around the Internet, that seems like the proper course of action. It seems that there will be a lot more context to base the most salacious parts on when ‘The Yankee Years’ is consumed in its entirety.
Pettitte closing in on deal with Yankees
Andy Pettitte appears to be closing in on a one-year contract, allowing the veteran to help open the Yankees’ new stadium as a member of the rotation.
A baseball source told MLB.com Monday that the Yankees were nearing completion on an agreement with Pettitte, and a deal could be reached later in the day.
The Yankees have not officially commented on the developments, but discussions between Pettitte’s representatives and general manager Brian Cashman have continued for weeks.
The 36-year-old’s agents, Randy and Alan Hendricks, have advised Pettitte that the Yankees’ offer – widely reported to be one year at $10.5 million – represents too large of a pay cut it represents from the $16 million he earned in each of the last two seasons. But the Yankees could help make up some of the difference by including performance-based incentives.
The light is still on for Pettitte
If you tuned out a few months ago on Andy Pettitte and just rejoined us … you didn’t miss much. The Yankees and Pettitte’s representatives are still talking.
You probably know the particulars by now: Pettitte has been reluctant to accept a one-year, $10.5 million deal because of the pay cut it represents from the $16 million he earned in each of the last two seasons.
But he said repeatedly last year that his choice is to help the Yankees move across the street (as recently as December in this video interview) and that he does not see himself pitching in another uniform.
Other clubs seem to agree. Astros owner Drayton McLane said Friday he did not see his club entering the stalled negotiations for Pettitte, telling the Associated Press that the Astros are “pretty well set” but “it’s a long time until Spring Training.”
Until further notice, Brian Cashman has said the Yankees would enter the spring selecting a fifth starter from the group of Phil Hughes, Alfredo Aceves, Ian Kennedy, Phil Coke and non-roster invitee Jason Johnson.
Are the Yankees done?
Brian Cashman may be on vacation this week, but Ken Rosenthal suggests that the Yankees aren’t done yet. At FOXSports.com, he wonders if they’ll make a few serious calls about Ben Sheets and/or Juan Cruz before all is said and done.
The Yankees did kick the tires on Sheets back at the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas, but Sheets has had trouble finding a club willing to take a chance after he experienced injury problems late last year.
With the Andy Pettitte standoff dragging on and his chances apparently dwindling by the day, Sheets represents another choice should the Yankees really not be comfortable with selecting their fifth starter out of the group of Phil Hughes, Alfredo Aceves, Ian Kennedy and Phil Coke.
Cruz would be an addition to a back end of the bullpen, and a welcome one to those who have their doubts about Damaso Marte and Brian Bruney setting up. The rest of the relief corps is certainly amenable to an upgrade, with contenders like Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras not promised anything heading into the spring.
Pettitte running out of time?
The Yankees have not pulled their offer to Andy Pettitte, though it appears the club may be preparing to complete the roster without their veteran left-hander. In the time since the Yankees offered Pettitte one year at $10 million, the club has been able to get CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira to sign on the dotted line.
But still nothing from Pettitte, who could be the odd man out as they look to complete the rotation. The New York Post reports that it is now “doubtful” the Yankees will sign Pettitte, and Newsday reports the club is happy with their team as is.
“Right now it’s doubtful on Pettitte, given where we are financially
with this stuff,” a Yankees official told the Post. “But things change,
especially here, if Hank and Hal [Steinbrenner] decide to do something.”
Pettitte wants to pitch for the Yankees, and the Yankees still would like him back – just not at $16 million. It still makes enough sense that it could happen, but reading comments like these should be a jolt to Pettitte that the Yankees are ready to move on.
Alphabet soup with CC and A.J.
Cross the top two items off Brian Cashman’s holiday shopping list, as the Yankees have added A.J. Burnett to the party behind CC Sabathia in the rotation. That makes the starting pitching department almost complete, leaving it up to Andy Pettitte to decide if he wants to be the Yankees’ fourth or fifth starter for a one-year, $10 million deal.
Once again, and maybe now more than ever, the smart money is that Pettitte will accept. Burnett would have had incredible leverage on the Yankees if Sabathia had gone elsewhere, but it’s win-win for him — he can now slip in behind Sabathia and use that big shadow to escape a lot of the New York media spotlight. His personality isn’t perfectly suited for New York, but he has 82.5 million reasons to make it work.
What also played into this was the geographical location to Maryland. Burnett’s wife, Karen, does not choose to fly, and because of this, New York suddenly looked a whole lot more geographically appealing than Atlanta. The Blue Jays used to have a clause in Burnett’s contract that provided for limo service between Maryland and Toronto — the ride just got a whole lot shorter.
Yankees sweep away the A’s
Aided by Jason Giambi’s go-ahead homer in the sixth, Andy Pettitte guided a
two-hour, 26-minute breezer in New York’s 2-1 win against Oakland on
Sunday to complete a three-game sweep at Yankee Stadium. It was another sweltering day up in the Bronx but Pettitte kept his cool, working quickly and efficiently.
Johnny Damon wants to be in the Yankees lineup. Well, you can’t always get what you want. There’s a chance he’ll be in Monday as the Yankees meet the Twins.
I’ve been checking the coolstandings.com site pretty much daily now; it’s become part of my morning habit. I was no math major, but this is the time of year for it. In case you’re wondering, the Yankees are handicapped at 25.1 percent to make the playoffs, 12.4 percent for the AL East title.
Pettitte’s season to be disrupted?
This was talked about as a possibility back when the Mitchell Report fallout was all we were talking about, but thankfully hundreds upon hundreds of innings of actual baseball pushed it back in the news.
The New York Daily News is reporting that Andy Pettitte could be called to Harris County, Texas to appear as a witness in the defamation lawsuit that Roger Clemens has brought against former personal trainer Brian McNamee. You’ll remember that Pettitte largely sided with McNamee’s version of events when he provided a sworn deposition to Congress.
Pettitte starts tonight as the Yankees open a four-game weekend series with the Boston Red Sox.
Assorted off day thoughts from across the GWB
Sitting here in the Garden State, it’s strange to look at the schedule and see the Yankees dark for the evening. Don’t get too used to it, but I’m sure the players are enjoying the chance to kick back and relax for a day. It’s Cinco de Mayo, incidentally.
So far today I’ve used the afternoon to go for a four mile run and crack open the new John Feinstein book, ‘Living on the Black.’ I’ll fire this plug in here because many of you might find this entertaining — Feinstein followed Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine around for the entire ’07 season and chronicled their ups and downs, the events and really, what it’s like to be a big league pitcher. I’m only a few dozen pages in but, so far, thumbs up.
Interesting weekend out at the Stadium, wasn’t it? They’ll try to keep that momentum going with the Indians headed in Tuesday night for a three-game series, sending Andy Pettitte out against Fausto Carmona. As our preview notes, maybe it will be the time that Robinson Cano breaks out … you know the Yankees can’t wait for his slumbering bat to wake up.
As some of you may know, every other Monday is Yankees Mailbag day. We’ll have a new one on MLB.com for you shortly but here’s a few points I wanted to get to, but had to leave on the cutting room floor. …
– The Yankees have shown no inclination to move Derek Jeter to a new position and, though it may happen eventually, it won’t be in ’08. Gonzalez has hung around longer than anyone expected — Joe Girardi had said that he’d be sent down as soon as Jeter’s quadriceps injury was better, but then Wilson Betemit came down with a mysterious corneal ulcer and went on rehab with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
– Andrew Brackman is going to miss all of ’08 after Tommy John surgery. Humberto Sanchez is throwing off a mound in Tampa but has not yet pitched in a Minor League game. When he does, you can start the clock, but a good guess would be that he could be considered for an August callup.
– Carl Pavano? Really? I must have had about 25 Pav questions, literally. Lisa Kennelly from the Newark Star-Ledger answered the question, “What is Pavano doing?” better than I can. The answer appears to be very little.
(By the way, for those of you who e-mail vulgar notes because I haven’t answered your questions … there are literally thousands of Mailbag questions and I can’t personally answer each one. If you send a question to bryan.hoch@mlb.com, it has a much better chance of being answered.)
Last thought — check out the Manager’s View with Joe Girardi before every home game.
On this date in 1923…
Yankee Stadium became The House that Ruth Built.
Fitting, perhaps, that the Yankees will be in Ruth’s home town of Baltimore for the weekend, opening a three-game series with the Orioles. While they’re there, some of the reporters who cover the Yankees are heading over to the Babe Ruth Museum for a tour.
If you’ve never headed down I-95 to ‘invade’ Oriole Park at Camden Yards, let’s just say that there are plenty of Yankees fans who do. You should definitely put this one on your travelogue. It’s a great ballpark and the Inner Harbor is quite nice for walking, shopping and eating, especially on a day as nice as this one.
Here are the pitching matchups for this series:
Friday: Phil Hughes, RHP @ Daniel Cabrera, RHP (0-0, 5.94)
Saturday: Ian Kennedy, RHP (0-1, 8.74) @ Brian Burres, LHP (1-1, 5.40)
Sunday: Andy Pettitte, LHP (2-1, 3.38) @ Steve Trachsel, RHP (1-2, 5.65)
Bryan Hoch
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