Andy Pettitte is extremely unhappy with how his negotiations have gone with the Yankees, and the lefthander might be softening on his opposition to rejoining the Astros.
What once seemed a fait accompli - Pettitte returning to the Yankees for a 12th season in pinstripes - now appears increasingly in jeopardy, although the two sides continue to communicate and they ultimately rank as each other's first choice.
The 36-year-old's grievances with the Yankees feature, most prominently, these three sentiments, according to people familiar with his thinking:Let's go one by one, shall we?
1. Pettitte believes that the Yankees should display more appreciation for all that he has done for them.
2. While the Yankees are asking that Pettitte take a pay cut, the team clearly is not hurting financially, given its large investments in Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett.
3. Pettitte thinks that his 2008 season wasn't as bad as the Yankees are making it out to be.
1. What about all the Yankees have done for him? Does the Mitchell Report ring a bell?
2. First of all, that's the main reason they're asking him to take a paycut. They've spent a ton of money trying to improve this team bringing in younger, better, talent. Second, a player must expect a paycut when they have one of the worst year's of their career.
3. While he's right about his first half of '08, which was very good. His last two months of the season were so bad that when it was all said and done he had a very pedestrian year as a whole. Not to mention that he had those two terrible months when the Yankees needed him the most.
Seriously, if he wants to be a Yankees so badly, he needs to drop this petty b.s. and sign.
7 Comments:
I never thought I'd say this about Pettitte, but if that's true, he can take a hike and I'll live with Hughes being rushed to the big leagues again. I was very sad the first time he left because he was one of my favorite Yankees, and I felt that the Yankees were short-changing him. But this time it's his decision. Hopefully, this is just the Hendricks brothers negotiating and trying to be like Boras, eeking out every penny they can.
he starting to sound Latrell Sprewell, "i have to feed my family"...
he saw what clemens got for half a year and so he probably thinks he deserves more, not too mention how much they have spent already this offseason.
$10 mill is not bad at all, he's really making a mistake. dumbass
But jmas12. the first time Petitte left for Houston it was his choice also. The Yanks offered him more, but he wanted to be home with his family. Now, I don't knock him for that, but making the Yanks out to be the villain in that situation is ridiculous.
This really is a bad situation. If Petitte signs with the Yanks for the $10 mil. he's going to have a chip on his shoulder. Not to mention the pressure form the fanbase after seeing him act like a spoiled brat. I think its best if the Yanks and Petitte just part ways now. Needless to say Petitte's pinstripe legacy is quickly diminishing. He may very well be remembered more for his antics, his empty words and his back-and-forth cry baby crap, than his stellar performance on the field in his first run with the team. I mean, he's pretty much silent the entire off-season and the first thing out of his mouth is this crap. No matter what happens, I have lost a tremendous amount of respect and affection for him.
sorry Andy but you should have taken the 10mm. That offer was a gift.
BB
Andy is screwing up big time. I'm very, very surprised by this.
The guy is delusional. I suppose that you don't do well in baseball without being confident and thinking highly of yourself, but Andy must think he's still good.
Andy Pettitte was never even really that great of a pitcher. He was an innings eater and a workhorse, but he never assumed an ace role with the Yankees.
Now, he's 36/37, coming off one of the worst years of his career, and he wants the moon.
Just because the Yankees overpaid to lure CC and AJ, doesn't mean they need to overpay for Pettitte. As I've pointed out, you don't hear Wakefield moaning over his perpetual $4M/year deal.
I don't know what exactly he wants. The Yankees tell him they want him back, Pettitte says he wants to come back, and they make what's a very reasonable market offer.
In reality, Pettitte not coming back might be a good thing. If you assume that last season was a trend (which can very well be evidenced by the fact that he's been mediocre over the last 3 seasons' ERA+: 106, 110, 98), in addition to some mysterious shoulder issues, Pettitte might be worse in 09 than in 08. If that's the case, you're looking at an ERA close to 5, and a WHIP of 1.43-1.45 or more. Those are awful numbers, and can easily be replaced by what Hughes, Aceves, Coke, or any other random guy could do.
jmas - When Pettitte left for Houston, there were reports that the Yankees offered more money. Something about the difference in income taxes vs. Texas made Houston's offer higher, but I believe the Yankees offered a higher base salary.
Additionally, there were numerous speculations that Pettitte was... "messing around" on his wife. While nothing every officially came out, there was a lot of talk that Pettitte's wife demanded he come back "home" to play.
I'm sick of players expecting the Yankees to beg them to come back on top of lavishing them with more money than they are worth. Players should understand that a lot depends on the market, as well as the fact that you should have to woo players from other teams more than you should have to woo players who know NY already.
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