I KNOW Andy Pettitte is bluffing. You know he’s bluffing. Brian Cashman probably knows he’s bluffing. But here’s the problem: What if Pettitte isn’t bluffing?
What if Pettitte, a Walton Mountain kind of guy, decides to forgo some dollars to go home to Houston? Or what if Pettitte decides he simply does not like the way the Yankees treated him over the years (too many trade rumors, too little love) and recognizes he can devastate George Steinbrenner by enlisting with the Red Sox?
Now we all know that isn’t going to happen. We know Pettitte, a Yankee at heart, is going to stay a Yankee for life, go hard after those 90 victories he needs to pass Whitey Ford as the all-time Yankees win king. We all know his agents, the Hendricks Brothers, pulled a ploy out of Negotiating 101 by so publicly meeting with the Astros on Tuesday then having Randy Hendricks send an e-mail to reporters in which he said, “The Red Sox are very interested.”
Randy Hendricks usually reveals little about negotiations, but here he is telling the world Boston is interested in his client. That felt more like him goading Steinbrenner to overreact. Yankees officials have been preaching patience to The Boss while George is ranting that if the officials are wrong and Pettitte ends up elsewhere . . . well, you know what happens.
“If you have an owner who is saying, ‘You will not lose Andy Pettitte,’ as I’m sure George Steinbrenner is saying, it makes negotiating very difficult,” an AL executive said. “Because if you call the bluff and lose, then Brian probably loses his job.”
Cashman and the Yankees have played a dangerous game with Pettitte. They have let him go free agent. They have indicated to Pettitte’s reps that the market is down as far as years and dollars provided in contracts.
The common wisdom has been the Yanks must give Pettitte four years at a raise over the $11.5 million he earned last season. But officials who have spoken to the Yankees say the team views last year’s salary as part of an overall four-year, $35 million pact, an average of $8.75 million annually. Those officials think the Yanks are offering in the three-year, $30 million range with the belief other clubs are unprepared to top even that.
The AL executive said, “Boston is not going to be involved at the kind of dollars necessary to get Pettitte because it can’t spend $10 million a year on a pitcher.” And could you imagine what Pettitte’s pal, Roger Clemens, would tell him about going to Boston?
Perhaps the Red Sox simply want the threat out there so the Yanks spend more on Pettitte (a ruse the Yanks often use on others), or maybe Red Sox president Larry Lucchino merely has found another venue to tweak Steinbrenner, whom he loathes. Which would make this all a bluff. Except the Red Sox have been doing a lot of homework on Pettitte, making you wonder if this is Tom Glavine leaving the Braves for the Mets after we all laughed at that thought initially.
As for the Astros, unless they can dump most of Richard Hidalgo’s $12 million 2004 contract (highly unlikely), they can’t exceed $10 million annually, either. The Yanks recognize Pettitte might give the Astros a home-city discount, but if that’s the case, inflating an offer wouldn’t matter anyway.
Steinbrenner’s money can buy many things, but the closest to home the Yankees can offer Pettitte is something spelled H-O-U-S-T-O-N, but pronounced House-ton Street in these neck of the woods.
Before this is all over, we probably will hear that at least Anaheim, Baltimore and Philadelphia are interested, and we will know it is more bluffing. Because Pettitte is a creature of habit, and if he is not going to Houston there is no way he is doing anything but staying a Yankee.
Maybe he will notice Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez and Mike Hampton chased the dollars and found the money could be greener elsewhere, but that’s about it.
Or maybe Pettitte is ready to turn over his cards and blow up the Yankees’ offseason plans by showing them that when you are the ace in the hole, you don’t need to bluff.
