Friday, March 16, 2012

Contract Corner: Andy Pettite

WHAA?!

Last night I got very little sleep and had to wake up early. After running a couple errands I came home and passed out on the couch for a while watching the beginning of the Tigers Mets Grapefruit League game.  I was dozing off when I heard that the Yankees had re-signed Andy Pettite to a minor league deal, and had to pinch myself to make sure this wasn't some kind of weird dream where my brain was reporting false news to me that would only kind of matter to me. I'm not a Yankees fan, but this really surprised me.



The Bombers are already loaded on the rotation front, but the line up sort of looks like this:

1). CC Sabathia
2). Everyone else

Ok, Hiroki Kuroda is pretty decent and Michael Pineda and Ivan Nova are definitely promising, but another proven pitcher who's been a pinstripe adorned staple for 16 years prior isn't a bad idea. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, Pettite won't join the rotation right away anyways. He'll spend the rest of spring training getting in shape and then rejoin the team. My guess is that that process will shed some light on exactly what role Pettite will play for the Yanks in 2012.

Usually I'd harp on a team for attempting to resurrect the husk of an athlete that once was (cough Manny Ramirez cough), but Pettite looked good when he decided to hang it up. On top of that, his contract is a total non-risk. If he's terrible, they lose $2.5MM max and can rest on the notion that they gave a deserving, eager Yankee one last chance. If he's good, $2.5MM is going to look like the biggest bargain ever. His contract is a one year minor league deal, but I wouldn't expect to wait very long before you see him back in the Yankees starting rotation. Assuming he's effective, he'll be back 2013 as well.

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