Pettitte hurting pitching depth?

From Jon Heyman (SI):

Veteran right-hander Freddy Garcia chose the Mets over the Yankees because he felt it gave him the best opportunity to pitch, as the Mets still have not filled their final starting job. Even if the Mets sign one more starting pitcher, Garcia could still have a chance to make the starting rotation since the recently-signed Tim Redding has the versatility to pitch out of the bullpen.

While the Yankees still would appear to have one final unsettled spot in the rotation, as well, there’s still a chance longtime Yankee Andy Pettitte could reverse course and grab that job, and Garcia apparently wondered about that possibility. The Mets are still trying to sign a starter, and are focusing mostly on their own free agent Oliver Perez, but there’s no certainty they will be able to secure him. And even if Perez does re-sign with the Mets, Redding, who has a guaranteed $2.25-million contract (plus incentives), has the ability to pitch out of the bullpen.

Freddy Garcia is Freddy Garcia and Andy Pettitte is Andy Pettitte. I’d take Andy over Freddy any day. However, if Andy doesn’t return (if he goes somewhere else) and we lost out on the chance to add a low-cost piece to the depth chart, isn’t that a problem for us? Also, we know that the Yankees went after John Smoltz. Did Smoltz take this into account when he signed with Boston? Maybe the Yanks went after other guys like Brad Penny but we’re not hearing about that. Could it be that the notion of Andy Pettitte cost us cheap pitching depth?

It’s an interesting topic and one that is troubling. Andy needs to grow a pair and accept what he has coming to him deserves. If he signs with the team, none of this will matter.