Starting Pitcher: Mets, Yankees and Pettitte
Yesterday, the New York Times said free-agent LHP Andy Pettitte rejected Brian Cashman’s one-year, $10 million offer, as the pitcher continues to seek a $16 million deal.
However, the Yankees are still open to negotiating with Pettitte, according to FoxSports.com and the Daily News.
Actually, Joel Sherman of the New York Post believes the Yankees are more likely to lower their $10 million offer than they are to raise it.
In a report about Mark Teixeira for the Bergen Record, Bob Klapisch slips in the following about Pettitte:
“If Pettitte’s career in the Bronx is really over, Flushing would be the logical place for him to land… But the Mets’ hierarchy undoubtedly senses Pettitte and the Yankees are playing a garden-variety game of chicken. If Omar Minaya were to call Pettitte’s agents today, the result would be to give the left-hander the leverage to extract an extra $2 million out of the Yankees… Which is why the Mets aren’t about to pick up the phone - even though the thought has indeed crossed their minds.”
Pettitte in Queens would be painful to the Yankees, and so I can see why such a move might be enticing – for both the player and the Mets, not too mention he’d fit in nicely with, say, Johan Santana, Derek Lowe, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey. However, like Klapisch says, it seems to me that Pettitte and the Yankees will eventually work it out – they’re just going through a rough patch right now.
In mid-December, Jon Heyman of SI.com said Pettitte had a three-year offer on the table from an ‘unnamed team,’ though Heyman has not mentioned the offer since that initial report.
Speaking of starting pitchers…
The Cubs may soon re-open talks with the Padres about RHP Jake Peavy, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
