Thursday, November 13, 2008

Yankees Sign Marte, Other Lefty Still Waiting

The Yankees signed lefty reliever Damaso Marte to a 3 year $12 million deal yesterday. Although Marte struggled for the most part with the Yankees, he showed moments where he was absolutely brilliant, and a lot of his struggles can be traced back to a multi-inning pitching performance where he got his pitch count pretty high. What the Yankees have failed to do however is resign another lefty pitcher named Andy Pettitte. The exclusive negotiation window ends Friday, and if Pettitte isn't signed by then he can then start taking offers from other teams. Although he wants to play for the Yankees, accepting offers from other teams just allows for more leverage on his part. The Yankees would be smart to sign him to a one year $10-$11 million deal before we end up having to dish out $16 million again. I'm wondering if the Yankees are making the same mistake of 2003 when they dragged their feet to do something with Pettitte and then acted all shocked when he signed with the Astro's. Will history repeat itself? Probably not, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

There's also the matter of that other lefty. I think the Yankees just plan on flying Sabathia down to the Amazon, walking him into a gold mine, and telling him to start filling wheelbarrows while a mining manager takes notes. Once Sabathia has enough to build his own Fort Knox, he'll sign with the Yankees.

1 comment:

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

they ought to resign Andy if only b/c it gives us a relatively affordable option when we'll probably sign two other free agents for quite a lot. It's also a one year deal and if Hughes or some other prospect shows he can pitch in the majors we'll have a spot for him next year.