From @BobKlap:
Yankees heard from friend of Pettitte’s that he’s def retiring, altho that was three weeks ago. Still waiting on his decision.
Obviously, Andy’s retirement would be a big blow for the Yankees. It would make acquiring Cliff Lee even more imperative, and would force the Yankees to consider addressing the other hole in their rotation by going outside of the organization. The free agent market is fairly bare in terms of suitable starting options, so a trade would need to be explored. We will have more on this as it develops.
Update: Friend of the blog Craig Calcaterra has an opposing report, stating:
Source close to Pettitte tells me that while you never know with Pettitte, the expectation is that he’s coming back.
Sounds like a decision has yet to be reached.
Update: Brian Cashman said that Pettitte told him after the season that he was leaning towards retirement. He added that he spoke to Andy’s agent about 7-10 days ago, and was told that Andy is still leaning in that direction.
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4 Responses to Klapisch: Pettitte Pal Told Yanks Andy Is Retiring (Updated)
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TIQ IQ
If we sign Lee I really doubt Andy retiring would force us to go outsude the organization for an answer, it’s not my first choice but I would be more than willing to start the year with the winner of Mitre/Nova/Noesi/Brackman in the 5th spot to start the year and if he is ineffective or gets hurt we can move to the next one. A 5th starter isn’t killing anyone if their rotation is Sabathia, Lee, Hughes and Burnett deep.
Of course having Pettitte in the rotation is something that any Yankees fan would like for the upcoming season BUT even if I pitched as the 5th starter with C.C., Lee, Hughes and that other guy as the first four starters, we would make the playoffs. And as we all know, in the playoffs, four pitchers can do just fine. The only problem is that Pettitte as the 4th starter in the playoffs is way better than having that other guy take the mound.
You mean that guy that allowed us to never pitch a 4th starter in 2009 because he started on short rest and pitched well the entire playoffs? Oh that’s right without “that other guy” we don’t win a World Series in 2009 do we, no I guess we probably don’t even compete.
Yes Burnett had a terrible year but everyone acts like he was the worst sign of all time and contributed nothing but in reality without his arm and his well pitched ball games in the playoffs we don’t win the WS in 2009 because we had no other starters. If you want to trash the guy do it for his bad season but all I read is this guy getting taken behind the wood shed and no acknowledgement of what he meant to the 2009 ball club on and off the field, people pretend he was “along for the ride” to a championship instead of be a main cog.
Burnett probably had the worst year imaginable under the circumstances but I don’t see how he can pitch much worse than he did a year ago and even then his xFIP was 4.63 and his FIP was 4.8 so that even further renforces the probability in his coming back strong.
MLB rumor has Cashman meeting with Andy Pettitte and coming away feeling Andy is leaning towards retirement.