Yanks agree with Pettitte: Hughes odd man out

The Yankees have agreed to a one-year deal with pitcher Andy Pettitte to bring him back for the inaugural season at the new Yankee Stadium. The deal is similar to the one the Red Sox gave John Smoltz. Pettitte will be paid a base salary of $5.5 million, but could make up to $12 million with incentives.

Surprisingly, the deal comes at a price tag the Yankees are comfortable with paying the 36-year-old pitcher. Pettitte had earlier taken a winter-long stance against taking a pay cut from the $16 million annual salary he received from the Yankees the past two seasons. Pettitte took the deal after realizing the market is dead, and the Yankees were prepared to move on.

The Yankees are happy. Andy Pettitte is content. You know who shouldn't be happy? Yankee fans.

Over the nostalgia from years past, New York was glad to hear Andy ‘HGH’ Pettitte would probably not be back next season. Much like his former buddy Roger Clemens, he had proved to be nothing but a money chasing fraud. New York was ready to move on.

He kept the Yankees out of the loop about being investigated for using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) by Senator George Mitchell last year. He conveniently signed a one-year $16 million deal with the Yankees a day before Mitchell’s bombshell report on PED use in Major League Baseball was released. Despite being finagled, the Yankees stood by him, willingly turned the page, and prepared for the upcoming season.

The upcoming season proved to be one of the worst of Andy’s career. After a decent first-half he showed he was done in the second half. One of the major reasons the Yankees weren’t able to make their annual 2nd half surge into the playoffs was due to the failures of Pettitte. He was nothing more than a 6-inning pitcher on his good days. After going 10-7 in the first half, he won just 4 games and lost 7 the rest of the way giving him a 14-14 record with a 4.54 ERA.

Despite the season he had, Pettitte still believed he was worth $16 million, and the Yankees were cheating 'him' out of millions.

The Yankees should have stayed away, even if it was at a discount. The way to go was Phil Hughes. He had a horrible season last year before he got hurt, but showed glimpses of what the Yankees expected out of their heralded young pitcher in a brief cameo at the end of the season.

Hughes warrants another chance to prove he can be the type of pitcher we all expected. He pitched a brilliant 8 innings going pitch-for-pitch against A.J Burnett in his last start of the season.

He has thrown 106 2/3 innings in the major leagues with some success and many failures, but at 22 years of age, many pitchers are still in the minor leagues or still adjusting to the majors. Hughes already has 2 years of experience in the major leagues even if it was in limited time.

The Yankees’ pitching rotation is now complete with:

CC Sabathia

Chien-Ming Wang

A.J. Burnett

Andy Pettitte

Joba Chamberlain

Pettitte now takes the final spot in the rotation. It leaves Hughes as the odd man out. We can wait though because his time will come. It just won’t be this year, unless there is an injury. The Yankees can attest firsthand how important it is to develop pitching. We all know how much they spent on CC Sabathia and A.J Burnett this off-season.

If nothing else, the Yankees now have a deep rotation with several young pitchers such as Hughes, Alfredo Aceves, and Ian Kennedy waiting in the wings for another shot; a fair shot. Not a shot of Human Growth Hormone.