NEW YORK — Andy Pettitte’s only thought was to stay with the Yankees. He had no interest in returning to his hometown Astros.
Still, the 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, 36, 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.
The deal raised the Yankees’ projected opening-day payroll to $196.8 million for 17 players with agreements.
Footnotes.
The Royals and right-hander Zack Greinke agreed to a $38 million, four-year contract that avoided a salary arbitration hearing.
• Three-time all-star Sean Casey, who hit .302 with 130 home runs and 735 RBIs from 1997-2008, is expected to announce his retirement today to join the MLB Network.
• Craig Counsell and the Brewers completed a $1 million, one-year contract after the veteran infielder passed a physical.
• Catcher Brad Ausmus and the Dodgers finalized a one- year, $1 million contract.
• The Athletics were close to finalizing a one-year deal with reliever Russ Springer.
• The Astros agreed to one-year contracts with their last two players in salary arbitration, giving left-hander Wandy Rodriguez $2.6 million and right-hander Geoff Geary $1.7 million.
The Associated Press
