The Yankees' new deal with Hiroki Kuroda is the biggest baseball story out of the Big Apple today, but here are some more items from both the Yankees and the Mets…
- "Everyone [I] talk to seems confident [Andy Pettitte] will return" to pitch in 2013, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Pettitte will surely want a significant raise from his $2.5MM salary in 2012, Sherman warns.
- Also from Sherman, he believes the Yankees will make "bold" one-year contracts akin to their deal with Kuroda, as the team is comfortable signing veterans to short-term deals. The Yankees will also look for less-expensive "Freddy Garcia type" pitchers later in the winter to add depth, though Sherman doesn't mean Garcia specifically. Sherman suggests Dallas Braden as a possible candidate to fit this mold (both links are to Twitter).
- David Wright's chances of signing an extension with the Mets are no better than 50-50, an industry source tells Mike Puma of the New York Post. Wright and his representatives are dissatisfied with the length and guaranteed value of the Mets' offer, as Wright is looking for a contract in the neighborhood of seven years and $125MM. It has been previously reported that the Mets were going to offer Wright a deal worth at least $100MM and that the two sides had exchanged offers.
- Also from Puma, a Mets official is "not sure" if R.A. Dickey wouldn't be traded even if he did sign an extension. Some in the industry believe Dickey could look for some type of no-trade clause in any new contract with the team.
- Mets COO Jeff Wilpon told reporters (including MLB.com's Anthony DiComo) that he is "more optimistic" than he was two months ago about completing extensions for Wright and Dickey. Wilpon said that trading either player would be the Mets' third option, behind signing them long-term and beginning the season with both men still on the roster. "They're both under contract. This is not a free-agent situation. This is not an arbitration situation. They're both under contract. We have all the flexibility in the world with that," Wilpon said.
