Caldera: Ball in Pettitte’s court

Pete Caldera checks in with an update on Andy Pettitte and notes that the lefty’s future is very much in his own hands. He writes:

Is there any room for Andy Pettitte to re-up with the Yankees? Apparently. But a person with knowledge of the situation said that it’s up to Pettitte to initiate the discussion. If so, there might be a willingness on the Yankees part to take the offer from $10.5 million to $12 million.

It’s a little curious why incentives haven’t been floated as a way to get closer to a midway point between the Yanks’ offer and Pettitte’s $16 million salary last season, but that might only happen during a negotiation — and, by all indications, there hasn’t been much of a dialogue since Mr. Cashman went to Houston last month.

This clearly throws a little bit of a twist into the debate over who rejected whom. We’ve heard both that Pettitte had rejected the Yankees and that the Yankees were the ones who pulled their initial offer after Mark Teixeira signed. Caldera’s latest lends credence to the tale that Pettitte turned down the Yanks’ $10 million offer.

Either way, that part of this saga is just water under the bridge. It seems as though the Yankees are willing to up their offer to Pettitte as long as he comes back to them. They even seem willing to pay far more than the market would dictate for Pettitte’s services as well.

Considering the state of things, I’d say that it would behoove both sides to get this deal done. I’m going to stick with my prediction of a one-year, $12-$13 million deal. That’s where these negotiations are heading.