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Pettitte Returning To Yankees

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The Associated Press

Published: January 27, 2009

NEW YORK - Andy Pettitte's only thought was to stay with the New York Yankees. He had no interest in returning to his hometown Houston Astros.

Still, the 36-year-old left-hander was bothered when the Yankees wanted to cut his salary from $16 million to $10 million.

"Heck, the bottom line is I'm a man, and I guess it does take a shot at your pride a little bit," he said. "But when you put all that aside, I wanted to play for the New York Yankees and, you know, that was the bottom line. I wanted to be there. I wanted to play in that new stadium."

After months of stalled negotiations, Pettitte and the Yankees agreed Monday to a $5.5 million, one-year contract. While the guaranteed money is less than half New York's original $10 million offer, he can make an additional $6.5 million in bonuses: $4.5 million based on innings and $2 million based on days on the active roster.

"If in fact Andy does in 2009 what he's done before, he'll actually make more money, so in that case we would have no regrets," said the pitcher's agent, Randy Hendricks. "If things would go wrong, we might be in position to say maybe we should have taken the left fork in the road instead of the right fork in the road. But that is, as Andy said, part of life and part of negotiations."

New York withdrew its first offer in December after agreeing to a $180 million, eight-year deal with first baseman Mark Teixeira, a contract that, combined with agreements for pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, raised the Yankees' spending spree to $423.5 million for three players.

Pettitte met in Texas with General Manager Brian Cashman on Dec. 11 and told him he would be willing to accept performance bonuses. The sides kept on talking.

"It just got to the point where Randy called me and said, 'I think this is it, buddy,'" Pettitte said. "It didn't take me long to decide because I knew that was where I was going to play."

Pettitte might have been able to get a multiyear deal from another club.

"I could have made an awful lot more money than what I signed for," he said.

ASTROS: Agreed to one-year contracts with their last two players in salary arbitration, giving pitcher Wandy Rodriguez $2.6 million and reliever Geoff Geary $1.7 million.

BLUE JAYS: Outfielder Jason Lane and infielder Brandon Fahey agreed to minor-league contracts and were invited to the team's major-league spring training camp.

BREWERS: Utilityman Craig Counsell completed a $1 million, one-year contract after passing a physical.

ROYALS: Right-hander Zack Greinke agreed to a four-year contract that avoided a salary arbitration hearing.

LEGAL: New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain's arraignment on drunken-driving charges faces another delay. The 23-year-old former Nebraska standout was to appear in court in Lincoln on Monday, but his lawyer asked to have the hearing postponed.

RETIRING: Three-time All-Star first baseman Sean Casey planned to announce his retirement today to join the MLB Network.

Casey played in the major leagues from 1997 to 2008, hitting .302 with 130 homers and 735 RBIs for Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Boston. His best seasons were with the Reds, his team from 1998 to 2005.

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