Andy Pettitte’s return from a one-year retirement stint has been a smashing success to date, though a fluke leg injury cost him more than two months of the season. The 40-year-old left-hander hinted in August that the extended DL trip put the thought of returning to the Yankees to pitch in 2013 into his mind. Simply put, he hadn’t gotten all of the baseball out of his system due to the injury. While speaking with the media yesterday, Pettitte reiterated that returning as a player next year was still a consideration, if not downright likely.
“I know one thing: I know the competition and the desire to compete is still there, and I don’t feel like I kind of got that itch out from the 70 innings or so that I threw this year,” said Andy. “I was expecting to do a little bit more work than that. But we’ll see. We’ll see how this goes, and then I’ll factor everything probably in … it’s going to be a situation where you, again, just need to go home, see if I want to do this again.”
The Yankees would, without question, welcome Pettitte back with open arms next season if he decided to return for another year. They’d probably give him a sizable raise as well, considering he only pulled in $2.5M this year. Brian Cashman admitted to offering Pettitte upwards of $12M back in December, before the left-hander decided to return. He told the club to move forward with their offseason plans without him, and that money wound up in Hiroki Kuroda’s pocket.
For now, the most important thing is Game Two of the ALDS tonight. Pettitte has made 42 (!) playoff starts in his career, so this certainly isn’t his first rodeo. He’s pitched on all sorts of rest and through every weather imaginable, so a little drizzle and eight days off shouldn’t be much of a concern tonight. There’s a good chance retirement will again cross Andy’s mind if he helps the Yankees win the World Series, and as much as I love the guy, I sure hope we get to find out in a few weeks.
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