Andy Pettitte Scheduled To Start Sunday For Yankees

It doesn’t sound very promising, but that was apparently enough for Yankees GM Brian Cashman:

There’s no word yet on the 25-man roster move that will be made to add Pettitte; he will also have to be added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster, which is currently full, so the team will have to move a player off that squad as well.

But they might be getting a little nervous now. Just a little. From Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News:

After touching 90 m.p.h. in his previous outings, Pettitte averaged 86 m.p.h. in this outing, and he was frustrated with the results.

Pettitte was in the middle of the plate so many times, he admitted, “I got away with a lot of pitches that were mistakes ... I don’t feel the strength is there yet.”

Pettitte pitched four innings in his latest outing for Class-A Tampa, allowing just two hits and striking out five. The lefty also induced a double play, so he finished his four innings having thrown to one batter over the minimum. He’ll rejoin the Yankees soon, but not that soon:

It’s only his second minor-league start and Girardi said, “Usually you give a guy six starts.” It’s unclear where Pettitte will pitch in his next outing, but he likely will increase his workload by about 15 pitches, Girardi said.Pettitte will make at least one more start in Tampa, according to Brian Cashman. After that, he’ll likely join the Trenton Thunder to complete his tuneup.

From MLB.com:

Pettitte threw 32 pitches, and 26 of them were strikes. His next scheduled start is Sunday, as the Yankees (the New York ones) are hoping he can join the team in May.

Obviously, we can’t say anything for sure. Pettitte is getting up there in years, and he hasn’t pitched in a meaningful game since October 2, 2010. He retired for a full season, and he’s going to take a while to work himself back into shape.

So there’s clearly reason for hope. It’s been a long time since Andy Pettitte last pitched, but when he last pitched, he was effective in an American League starting rotation. When Pettitte’s body and arm are where he wants them to be, the Yankees might be faced with the kind of problem that every team executive wants to face: they might have too many quality pitchers.

I’ll pull from here:

Andy Pettitte must have gotten his drive back. The snarky thing to say would be that Pettitte retired in part to spend more time with his family, and now he’s grown sick of his family. More fairly, you just can’t predict what a little time off might do for the soul. And he was right about that 100 percent, and never saying never.