News broke early this morning, in a simple tweet from Jack Curry of the YES Network, that fan favorite and Yankee legend, Andy Pettitte, will be coming back to pitch again for the Yankees. The deal is a minor-league one worth $2.5 million.
Brian Cashman appeared in the YES booth during the Yankees spring training game against the Washington Nationals, and broke it down of how Andy ended up back with the Yankees.
Cashman appeared on the Michael Kay show in December, and Andy's name was brought up in regards to him coming back. Pettitte heard the conversation, and called Cashman telling him that the discussion "got his juices flowing." Cashman went on to ask if Andy was fully committed to coming back, in which he replied "no," but went on to offer him a substantial offer anyway. Andy declined the offer but said he would continue throwing. Cashman warned Andy that he was in talks with the Seattle Mariners for Michael Pineda, as well as Hirkoi Kuroda. After adding those two, Cashman told Andy he no longer had any room for him, and told Andy to stop throwing. Weeks went by and Andy gave another call to Cashman stating he really wanted to come back and had started up his throwing program again. Andy came to Yankees camp as a guest instructor and got excited about being around the team again. Him and Cashman continued discussing a return and one morning he threw a bullpen in front of the GM, Girardi, and Gene Michael. Cashman said he was the usual Andy, but his lower body and how it holds up is the only question. Ownership got involved and they were willing to expand the budget, just because it was Andy Pettitte.
This is definitely some "juicy" stuff that Cashman talked about, and something I am very fascinated about as a Yankee fan. This is an exciting day for Yankee fans, just for the fact that Andy is so loved in New York, and to get a chance to see him pitch again is an awesome feeling. Andy doesn't have much expectation to be who he was in 2010, especially since nobody saw this coming and we didn't expect it, but it will be great to see how close he can get to his 2010 form.
Kudos to Cashman and the rest of the Yankees organization in keeping this under-the-radar. Not one rumor came out about a possible comeback with Andy, and him signing the deal today was the first time we heard about all of this.
The Yankees are back to having seven pitchers with only five rotation spots. Cashman insisted that Andy will be coming back to be a starting pitcher, and made it evident that if he is healthy and performs, he has a spot waiting for him in the staff. As for Phil Hughes, Freddy Garcia, and even Michael Pineda, it will be interesting to see who is the odd-man out in the rotation once again.
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/yankees_sign_pettitte_to_contract_q9ajZaXviewdv1hiSmf6zJ
This is a good story for Yankees fans...........and if Pettite can come back and be as good as he was before he left, then that will be great help for the Yankees.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty cool that Cashman came to explain to the fans just how Pettite came to be back with the team, and it is surprising that they were able to keep all of this under wraps for so long, until the actual day that he signed the contract. That's pretty unusual.
This news most definitely was a shocker -- and it also undoubtedly adds a lot more juice into the Yankees coverage for the remainder of spring training and the early part of the regular season.
ReplyDeletei think andy is a good morale booster to the yankee organization
ReplyDeleteI think this is very exciting news for the Yankees and their fans. I also think it says something about the confidence they had in their current pitching corps... Im excited to see how this turns out
ReplyDeleteAndy gives a tradition feel to watching Yankee games, as does Jeter. He is a threat to the other pitchers fighting for a rotating spot. The Yankees have a brand to live up to and the p[layers better be ready for a much anticipated season.
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