MLB

Pavano appreciates Yankees GM ‘sticking his neck out’

Carl Pavano is headed back to the Twins with a two-year, $16.5 contract, but the righty did confirm the mutual interest between him and the Yankees.

Pavano spent four injury-riddled years in the The Bronx, where he earned the nickname “American Idle.” Yet the pitching-short Yankees and GM Brian Cashman were in talks with Pavano’s agent to bring him back this offseason.

“It shows a lot that he was going to stick his neck out there for me if something was going to work out,” Pavano said of Cashman, according to the Associated Press.

Reports suggest the Yankees were only willing to give Pavano a one-year deal and when the Twins, for whom he pitched the past year and a half, went up two years, he was headed back to Minnesota.

“He was in demand,” Twins GM Bill Smith said. “I know he had a lot of teams that called him. The best thing we both had going for us is he kept saying that he wanted to come back to the Twins and we kept saying that he was the one guy we really wanted to get.”

Pavano made $39.95 million on the Yankees deal he signed in 2005.

“I had several conversations,” Cashman said Wednesday. “Again, I’ve looked at everything that’s out there. I’ve always felt Pav could pitch here. I think he’s shown he can pitch in difficult circumstances. Bottom line, when he’s healthy, he can pitch. Did I have conversations with [agent] Tom O’Connell about Pav? I did. I don’t think he was afraid of coming back here either.”

With Brian Costello