On its surface, the Yankees’ recent addition of team icon Andy Pettitte to the front office seemed to invite comparisons to another move made this month, the firing of hitting coach Dillon Lawson and hiring of MLB veteran Sean Casey as his replacement.
Were the Yankees moving away from analytics? Was Pettitte now breathing down the neck of pitching coach Matt Blake -- who, like Lawson, did not play professional baseball?
As it turns out, the answers are no. And no.
“That’s not what this is at all,” manager Aaron Boone told SNY. “This is about how we feel about Andy and his impact.”
A closer look at Pettitte's brief exit and ultimate return to the Yankees makes clear why the hitting and pitching situations are so different. If not for the COVID-19 pandemic, Pettitte never would have had to return because he never would have left the fold in the first place.
In spring training of 2020, Pettitte was in uniform and on the field, just as he was during the homestand that ended on Wednesday. He was throwing batting practice and working with pitchers.
Once the pandemic hit, the Yankees voided the contracts of many part-time employees, including Pettitte and other ex-players like CC Sabathia. Boone, who has been friendly with Pettitte since the two played together in 2003, has been eager to re-activate Pettitte’s employment ever since.
In other words, the Yankees and Pettitte are now simply picking up where they left off before the pandemic.