Andy Pettitte has declined his $16MM player option for 2008, but his goal is not to test the free agent market. His choices remain the Yankees or retirement; basically by declining the option now he frees up a roster spot for the team.
As Peter Abraham writes, the Yankees would certainly prefer not to wait several months before hearing Pettitte’s plans. I was almost certain he’d come back for ’08. Still, it would not be the end of the world to enter next season with a rotation of Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy. They’d prefer more depth and will probably add another guy, but what they have now is still better than most teams.
