Joel Sherman (probably erroneously) reported yesterday that the Yankees are going to cut Pettitte’s contract offer which would, in essence, then telling him to go away. Period.
Pettitte recently rejected the Yanks’ latest $10 million overture, and now – barring a wave of sentimentality by the Yanks or significant strategy shift by either side – the Yanks either will lower their offer or not make another offer at all. A lowered bid almost certainly would end the prideful Pettitte’s second Yankee tour, sending him to retirement or another organization.
Multiple sources refused to divulge if the offer had been lowered already. But one executive briefed on the matter described both the chances of making a deal and the $10 million bid as on life support. Another executive said he did not believe the $10 million offer was there to be taken any longer.
I’m not really sure why he reported this when he doesn’t seem to have anything to back it up. Oh well, such is the New York Post. Maybe he used tea leaves. I think it’s much more likely they just won’t up their offer–why would they suddenly lower it rather than pull it?
Hal seems to think that they’ll keep negotiating (though it doesn’t seem that any actual negotiation has gone on–just whining and whinging). Yesterday at the Mark Teixeira press conference he said:
They were not happy with our offer; we were not happy with what they wanted. There’s still dialogue going on. Anything is possible, all options. We’re just going to continue to look at things. We’ll see where we end up in March.
It seems like there is a whole lot of posturing going on between the Yankees and Pettitte’s agents. Really, I don’t think Andy is worth $16 million even when you take into account his FIP and xFIP and all that. $10 million is probably right the way the market is going but I can’t blame anyone for trying to squeeze out as much money as possible. I guess we’ll see in March, as Hal says.
Andy really does make the team much stronger, but I do understand bringing him in at the right price or not at all. In a weaker division Alfredo Aceves might be an option but please remember that the AL East is absolutely ridiculous. Even the Orioles, a truly bad team, have a very good offense.
I’ve seen Phil Coke’s name pop up as a possible 5th starter, but that’s the most unlikely scenario–especially out of Spring Training. It was only in 2008 that he finally got his breaking pitches together and became a complete pitcher so he really does need some AAA time if they want him to remain a possible starter. And really, he probably isn’t any better than Aceves who is as good as he is going to get.
