TAMPA – Andy Pettitte stood in the hallway outside the Yankees clubhouse yesterday and said his ailing back had not improved overnight.
Pettitte is the optimistic type and always thinks positively.
He also was talking about how he still could make his first start of the year. He’s penciled in for the second game of the season against the Blue Jays on April 2, though he has been shut down since St. Patrick’s Day (March 17).
The Yankees need to do what’s best for Pettitte now and keep him shut down. They need to make sure his back woes are completely gone before he is even allowed to play catch. He couldn’t do that yesterday.
Pettitte does not need to make that first start the second game of the season at Yankee Stadium or be pushed back in the rotation to the Rays just to get him going.
He needs to skip that first start and make sure he is right for the long haul. That’s the most important thing.
This has not been a normal spring for Pettitte because of his late arrival and being in the center of the HGH Hurricane and the Roger Clemens-Brian McNamee storm. The worst thing the Yankees could do is rush the left-hander when he has lost time because of back spasms. Pettitte said his back “locked up” on him when he first hurt it on Thursday.
Being the competitor that he is, the Yankees need to protect Andy Pettitte from Andy Pettitte.
Even if it means Kei Igawa, of all people, starts in his place the first time through the rotation.
“If I had to have extra time you could push me back into the four slot or the five slot,” Pettitte said, trying to figure it all out in his head. “I can tell you one thing, I don’t want to do that, but I want to make sure that I’m healthy. I don’t want to go into the season with a bad back, that’s for sure.”
That’s the bottom line.
The last thing the Yankees need to be doing now is changing the order of the rotation.
It’s Chien-Ming Wang, Pettitte, Mike Mussina, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. Stay with the plan. Keep everyone on the same schedule they have been on for the spring. Don’t mess it up to push Pettitte back.
April 2 is the first night game of the year, and the temperature figures to be in the upper 40s or low 50s. It makes no sense for a 35-year-old, who has had a stiff back to go out and pitch in those conditions.
Pettitte should stay south for a little while longer. His pitch count was 65 last time out, and he has lost ground since then. Consider Mussina threw 83 pitches yesterday in a minor league intrasquad game at Legends Field and still needs one more start to be ready for his first start.
The Yankees, who produced an ugly 8-0 loss to the Pirates in Bradenton, Fla., do have options if Pettitte is forced to miss a start. It probably will not be Jeff Karstens, who started and allowed four runs and seven hits over three innings to the light-hitting Pirates, but it could be Igawa.
Igawa had his best Yankee outing of the spring. Granted, it was against Double A minor league players. The overpriced left-hander threw strikes and kept the ball down, striking out eight over four innings.
The Yankees have other arms. They don’t need Pettitte to push himself too quickly. They need Pettitte to be healthy for 35 starts, not rushed for one.