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Pettitte Thinks Too Highly Of Himself
Tyler Kepner of the New York Times broke the news last night that Andy Pettitte has rejected the Yankees' one-year, $10M offer for the upcoming season.
I'm not one to discount all the years of service Pettitte has turned in as a Yankee, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out exactly how overpaid he was over the past two seasons. Since returning to the Yanks, Pettitte has been a decent middle-of-the-rotation innings eater and he's been paid $32M to fill that role. An insane markup. Not to mention the fact that the franchise and its fans turned a blind eye to his embarrassing role in the Mitchell scandal and his convenient mea culpas.
It's understandable that the guy doesn't want to take a pay cut, but $10M is a fair offer, especially considering the starting pitching that is still available on the free agent market and the discounted contracts we're seeing guys like Pat Burrell and Milton Bradley sign.
Here's a list of available starters who are coming off better seasons than Pettitte, or at least they were in the same ballpark. Keep in mind that Pettitte is 37.
- Randy Wolf (32)
- Ben Sheets (30)
- Derek Lowe (36)
- Braden Looper (33)
- Jon Garland (29)
- Oliver Perez (27)
- Odalis Perez (31)
More power to Andy if he can find a team out there willing to do better than a one-year deal, or a team willing to top $10M. The thing that really bothers me about the situation is the lip service he gave, proclaiming he wanted to be a Yankee. If he wanted to be a Yankee, he would've signed the deal and taken the fair offer they gave him. Pettitte hasn't been woth $16M since 2005 and his numbers have steadily declined.
I'd like to have another veteran arm in the rotation to ease the expectations on the young guys, but if you honestly look at that list above, Pettitte wouldn't be my first choice. Hopefully the Yanks will turn their attention to Randy Wolf now.
I want someone for just one year, Wolf would be nice. I feel like Looper would be Rasner 2.0.
Perhaps take a flyer on Perez (of the Odalis variety).
Sheets for 2 years, $24-28M would be nice because assuming either he or Burnett gets hurt then you have Hughes/Aceves/Kennedy slip in. It makes the most sense in terms of spreading out risk but it is a fair amount of money to shell out.
I'm not a big fan of Looper. Wolf would be ideal, I'm still trying to figure out what the deal with Sheets is. You have to figure the prices are going down for all of these guys at this point, possibly with the exception of Lowe.
It looks like it's shaping up to be a game of chicken. I would like Pettitte back, but his methods annoy me. I'm not as high on Wolf as you are, though.
Pettitte really pisses me off. It would be one thing if he was still good, but he was completely crap in the second half last year. I say good riddance, grab one of those other guys for a reasonable amount on a short-term deal and move on.
When Wolf is healthy, he's an above average pitcher. The problem is keeping him healthy. But you could probably sign him to a two year deal for around 8 mil. a year, and he is younger than Pettite.
It's best for the Yanks to let Petitte take his high opinion of himself elsewhere.