Welcome back to the Yankees, Andy Pettitte. Earlier today Pettitte was named a special advisor to GM Brian Cashman, the Yankees announced. Pettitte said Derek Jeter tried to woo him to the Marlins — Jorge Posada recently joined Miami as a special advisor — but he wanted to remain a Yankee.
“I spoke with Derek recently,” said Pettitte to Ken Davidoff. “Obviously that would be something fun you could consider, with a couple of my buddies doing that or whatever. But this is something that has been in the works for really five years. Hal (Steinbrenner) and Cash and the organization have really been so great to me.”
“I’ll take as much Andy as I can get,” said Cashman to Bryan Hoch. Pettitte told Jack Curry his role will be “as loose as you could imagine,” and will allow him to coach his son Luke’s eighth grade baseball team this spring. He’ll assist Cashman however needed on the Major League and minor league side. Typical special advisor stuff.
The Yankees have never been shy about bringing aboard former players as special advisors. The special advisor stable currently includes Pettitte, Carlos Beltran, Hideki Matsui, Reggie Jackson, Alex Rodriguez, and Nick Swisher, among others. I’d bet on Mariano Rivera getting the special advisor title soon as well.