Pettitte Makes It Official; Mo to Follow

I had no sooner seen my latest Yahoo article published - Pettitte, Rivera Prepare to Re-Sign as Yankees Move Forward: A Fan's Take - when I heard that Andy Pettitte had officially re-signed with the Yankees for 2013.

The Yankees second winningest left-hander will receive $12MM guaranteed plus incentives. I'm surprised the Yankees were willing to give him that much up front considering Pettitte's 2012 salary was $2.5MM and he missed much of the season with a broken leg. Then again he proved he could still pitch and the Yankees clearly wanted him back.

Mariano Rivera should not be far behind with a contract similar to that of Pettitte's. Pettitte's deal sews up the Yankees rotation for the coming season, though the number five spot could be a competition between Ivan Nova, David Phelps, and others.


Click here and you can read more on the Yankees interest in Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli, and Ichiro Suzuki.

YCN: Yankees Low Key in Free Agent Market: A Fan's Cold Stove View

Josh Hamilton won't be donning the Pinstripes

Josh Hamilton, Shane Victorino, Zack Greinke, Kyle Lohse. Don't bother wasting your time wondering if the Yankees will go after any of these free agents. The answer is a resounding no. The Steinbrenner family is looking to get the payroll down under $189MM for 2014 when new tax thresholds take effect.

With a ton of money locked up in Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and CC Sabathia, it could be a very cold hot stove this off-season.


For more, read my latest article for the Yahoo Contributor Network by clicking here and as always, thank you.

Yankees Offer Up a Trio of Qualifying Offers

"Should I stay or should I go now?"

$13.3MM is the magic number this year in determining if Major League Baseball teams will receive compensation if they lose players to free agency.

As part of the new collective bargaining agreement agreed upon in 2011, type 'A' and 'B' free agency was eliminated. In it's stead, the onus is now on teams to make guaranteed one-year contract offers equal to the average salary of the league's top 125 players to any of their free agents in attempt to gain compensation for lost assets. The number for 2013 is the aforementioned $13.3MM.

The onus then switches over to the player to either accept or reject the offer. If an offer is rejected, the player's 2012 team will get compensation if the player signs with a new team for 2013. If the player accepts, the team has the player for one year, whether they really wanted that player or not.

The Yankees made three of the offers today and hope that just two of them are accepted. In reality, at most one will be accepted, which means the Yankees could receive two compensatory picks.

The offers were made to Nick Swisher (I'll guesstimate 10% chance at acceptance), Rafael Soriano (0%), and Hiroki Kuroda (75% - 100% chance if he wishes to play another year in the US). The Yankees do not want Swisher to accept and he will in all likelihood oblige since he is looking for a multi-year free agent deal.

The Yankees would be doing cartwheels down River Ave. if Soriano accepted the offer, but since he just opted out of his current contract with the Yankees, that's not happening either. Soriano's agent, Scott Boras, is said to be looking for a four-year deal based on the 42 saves Soriano compiled in 2012.

And then there's Kuroda, who made $10MM with the Yankees this past season and would probably jump at the increase if he doesn't retire. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports had already reported that Kuroda would be "fine" with a one year deal.

No offers were made to free agents Andy Pettitte, Russell Martin, Raul Ibanez, and Ichiro Suzuki

Players have until 5 p.m. EST on November 9, which coincides with the last day of the general managers' meetings, to make their decision. Exclusive negotiating rights with a team's own free agents ends tonight, five days after the end of the World Series.