Yankees sign Andy Pettitte

Andy Pettitte, who has flirted with retirement off and on for several years now, and supposedly retired for good after the 2010 season, is returning to baseball, having reportedly signed a one year, $2.5 million minor league deal with the New York Yankees.

Pettitte had put up a 3.28 ERA for the Yankees in 2010, his first sub-4 ERA season since he had a 2.39 ERA with the Astros in 2005, but he only logged 129 innings in the regular season, plus another 14 innings in the postseason, picking up the win against Minnesota in the ALDS and a loss against Texas in the ALCS.

The Yankee rotation was already considered to be relatively full, with C.C. Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda locked in, Ivan Nova and Michael Pineda theoretically "competing" for jobs but in reality pretty much assured rotation spots, and Phil Hughes and Freddy Garcia vying for the fifth spot.

Pettitte will likely go to the minor leagues for a month or two to stretch out and get used to pitching again, and then will be called up to fill one of the inevitable holes that always seem to crop up.