The 40-year-old, who threw off flat ground in Oakland during the Yankees’ West Coast swing, said he’s “laying low” after doing “a little too much in Seattle.”There are two possible things going on here:
“In Seattle it swelled up,” he said.
But Yankees general manager Brian Cashman insisted there are “no issues with Pettitte.”
“With rehab, you have good days and bad days, good weeks and bad weeks,” Cashman told the New York Daily News. “He’s coming back in September, which is what we’ve said all along.”
Cashman doesn’t have much time to go shopping for rotation help with Tuesday’s trade deadline fast approaching. He sounded confident that the veteran would be able to return for the Yankees’ stretch run.
“He’ll be back; that’s the bottom line,” Cashman said. “It’s no different than it was before.”
1) Pettitte didn't suffer a setback and he should return without a problem.
2) The Yankees are in damage control mode and don't want potential trade partners to realize how desperate they may in fact be.
I'm hoping it's the former, but I believe it's the latter. But hey, I'm a natural pessimist so of course that's what I believe.