Andy Pettitte Comes Out of Retirement, Signs With Yankees

Over thirteen months ago, Andy Pettitte held a press conference at Yankee Stadium to announce his retirement from the game of baseball. He quietly walked away from the game he loved, going down in history as one of the greatest left-handed pitchers in the history of the New York Yankees. Well today, the man who wore jersey number 46 has decided to put on the Pinstripes one more time.

The news broke on Twitter from Jack Curry of the YES Network and Jon Heyman from CBS Sports, as Andy Pettitte has signed a one-year Minor League deal worth $2.5 million. According to Curry, the 39-year-old pitcher will use the rest of Spring Training to get back into shape for the long season ahead, before joining the "Bronx Bombers" roster.

Pettitte reportedly got "the itch" to make a comeback when he visited the team's Spring Training complex in Tampa earlier this month as a guest instructor and threw some live batting practice. The former 3-time All-Star then informed team management that he was interested in attempting a comeback, an option that Yankees brass have kept alive since Pettitte's retirement announcement in February of 2011.

In his final season with the Yankees in 2010, Pettitte started just 21 games due to a late-season leg injury, finishing with an 11-3 record and a 3.28 ERA. His last full season in the Majors was back in 2009, accruing a 14-8 record with a 4.16 ERA.

During his 16-year career with the Yankees and Astros, Pettitte won 240 games with a 3.88 ERA, while only losing 138. He is also a two-time 20-game winner (1996 & 2003 with NYY), as well as a member of five Yankees world championship teams (1996, 1998-2000, 2009). Pettitte adds another arm to the arsenal of starting pitchers for the Yankees, which already had six pitchers competing for the five spots in the rotation: staff ace CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Michael Pineda, Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia.