Yankees Re-Sign Andy Pettitte To One-Year Deal

by Tommy Rancel on Dec 9, 2009 12:30 PM EST

In what has become somewhat of an annual event, Andy Pettitte has re-signed with the New York Yankees on a one-year deal that will reportedly pay the lefty $11.75 million dollars. It's seems like every offseason, I ask myself how can Pettitte keep racking up eight figure salaries? The answer is simple; he's worth it.

Even at his advanced age of 37, Pettitte is still an above average starter. It seems that he could wake up out of bed and hand you a 3.5-4 WAR season without much effort. Over the last eight seasons, his average WAR has been 4.14. If you remove the injury shortened season of 2004, he has earned a 4.46 WAR over the past seven season in which he has thrown at least 130 innings.

Since 2002, he has made over $93 million dollars. That seems like a lot for a guy who isn't necessarily thought of as an ace. Despite not having the ace tag ,and the increasing number of birthday candles on his cake, he has delivered nearly $120 million in WAR value in those years.

At a salary of $11.75 million dollars, Pettitte needs to give the Yankees a little more than 2.5 WAR in 2010 to give them a fair return on their investment. His FIP and xFIP were a bit elevated in 2009 due to higher than normal walk rates, but nothing alarming. With his track record of giving nearly 200 innings per season plus an above average FIP/xFIP, it should be pretty easy for the Yankees to get value once again from Pettitte.

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reduced payroll?

I’d love for somebody to explain to me how the Yankees are ‘reducing payroll to $185M’ this year, when my math already has them above that (considering Pettitte was only on the books for $5.5M last year due to a signing bonus and CC was on the books for about $9M less than this year due to a signing bonus).

by rmarx on Dec 9, 2009 12:45 PM EST reply actions

I guess they'll save some with Granderson

Over Damon (if he doesn’t re-sign as well). They also shed Matsui’s contract, but as we all know they probably aren’t done spending yet.

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by Tommy Rancel on Dec 9, 2009 1:04 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

I understand that

But Damon+Matsui = $26M, lowering payroll to $208M – $26M = $182M. Then you add back the $11.75M to Pettite and $9M to CC (as described above), and we’re up over $200M again!

by rmarx on Dec 9, 2009 1:16 PM EST up reply actions

re

Sorry – I should’ve taken out Pettitte’s $5.5M that showed up in 2009 payroll, so they’re not quite to $200M, but close.

by rmarx on Dec 9, 2009 1:20 PM EST up reply actions

Without looking at salaries they'll also be free of

Nady, Jose Molina and Wang.

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by Tommy Rancel on Dec 9, 2009 1:58 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

nady/molina/wang

Nady’s dollars weren’t included in the $208M payroll figure above, and neither was Wang. Molina saves them another $2.125M, Coke saves them 400K and Kennedy saves them 400K. Still not quite down to $185, and does anybody believe that they’re done spending?

by rmarx on Dec 9, 2009 2:10 PM EST up reply actions

Where did you find the 208 number that didn't include Nady or Wang?

Cot’s had them at 206 last year including those two players. They were paid 11.5 million. Giambi was also paid 5 million of that total. Dropping Bruney saved a little more than 1 million, but his/Coke’s/Kennedy’s salaries are off set by the other Arb players that get raises.

Most numbers I saw had them at about 175 before any signings. Granderson makes that ~180.

But you’re right that very few people believe that they’ll stay at 185

by metric on Dec 9, 2009 2:23 PM EST up reply actions

You should just check Cots

Cots, with the additions of Granderson and Pettitte, has the Yankees at about $187-188M already set on their 2010 payroll, after being at $201M in 2009.

If they plan on adding Damon and/or another outfielder, then yeah, they’re going way over their projected payroll. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if they were willing to change some things around in the payroll to fit Granderson in, because that deal was just too good to be true for the Yankees.

by Satchel Price on Dec 10, 2009 2:57 PM EST reply actions