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Andy Pettitte will announce his retirement on Friday, finally answering a question that has hovered over the Yankees during the offseason. The Yankees had hoped that Pettitte would return in 2011 to stabilize their starting rotation, but Pettitte has apparently decided to end his 16-year career so that he could spend more time with his family.

Pettitte traveled to Yankee Stadium on Thursday to meet with Yankee executives, which is his way of offering an official good-bye. The Yankees had known for more than 24 hours that Pettitte was about to retire. While there was a remote chance that Pettitte could have changed his mind before the meeting, team officials didn’t think that would happen and it didn’t. The press conference will be at 10:30 a.m. and will be televised by the YES Network.  

As the Yankees waited to hear what Pettitte would do, they continually hoped and even believed that he would eventually pitch another season. Since Pettitte had flirted with retirement before, and since he is only 38 years old, the Yankees were cautiously optimistic that he would amble back to the mound at a time when they really need him. Instead, Pettitte elected to amble away.

Once the Yankees failed to sign Cliff Lee, the need for Pettitte intensified. If Pettitte had returned, the Yankees would have been able to exhale as they studied their rotation because he would have joined CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes and A.J. Burnett as the top four starters. But without Pettitte, the Yankees have the less reliable options of Ivan Nova, Sergio Mitre, Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon competing for the final two spots.

As genial as Pettitte was, he was as intense a competitor as the Yankees have had across the last 20 years. With his glove perched in front of his stubble-haired face, Pettitte would peek over it to get a sign, almost seeming robotic. When Pettitte didn’t make the pitch he wanted, he would scold himself. Often. There was rarely an inning in which Pettitte didn’t talk to himself. He was a pitching perfectionist.

The former 22nd round draft pick finishes his career with a 240-138 record and a 3.88 earned run average, which includes a 203-112 mark and a 3.98 ERA. in his 13 seasons with the Yankees. Pettitte compiled more postseason wins than any pitcher in history, going 19-10 with a 3.83 in 42 games. He was 11-3 with a 3.28 ERA last season, but missed two months with a strained left groin.

During an interview with Pettitte last March in Tampa, I came away feeling that he would probably retire after 2010. Pettitte has always been eager to talk about his wife and four children, but this time it was different. The season hadn’t even begun and Pettitte was lamenting the moments he would miss by being in New York while his family was in Deer Park, Texas.

“I can’t just keep on playing,” Pettitte said at the time. “I need to get back home.”

It took Pettitte a bit longer to make it official, but he is, indeed, going back home. For the Yankees and the fans that will miss Pettitte, that’s depressing news.

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SAN PEDRO DE MACORIS, Dominican Republic  -- To find Robinson Cano working out on a hideaway field here, you need a local driver and a vehicle with sturdy shock absorbers. You need a Dominican driver because you need someone who can adeptly steer through the streets that have no names. He needs a rugged ride, meanwhile, because the journey is as adventurous as bouncing around on a Tilt-a-Whirl.

After buzzing in and around helmetless drivers on motor scooters in the crowded downtown, our driver turned on to a narrow dirt road. The chaos of the streets was replaced by the sobering sights on this road. The houses, which in reality were closer to wooden shacks, were smaller than one-car garages. Some were dilapidated.  Many kids wore no shoes. Some had no shirts, either.

When the road ended, a field could be seen, but seeing the field and actually getting there were separate issues. The last part of the drive involved slowly inching across a pockmarked pasture that was cluttered with potholes that only a city worker on overtime could love. If any driver accelerated beyond five miles per hour, his head would collide with the roof of his car.  

Once we finally made it to the field, it was easy to spot Cano. He was standing beside the batting cage, talking and swinging a bat. The patchy grass on the field was filled with weeds, there were massive piles of dirt in foul territory and neither dugout bathroom was operational, but Cano was as content as if he were playing at a gleaming Yankee Stadium.

“It doesn’t matter where you practice,” Cano said. “It’s how hard you work to get better. I like this field because you're away from everybody. You get to do what you got to do. I feel really comfortable here.”

In this ever so humble setting, Cano works out five days a week in his quest to become a more complete player. There are other professional players at Cano’s workouts, including Francisco Cervelli and Eduardo Nunez, his Yankees teammates, but most of the kids shagging fly balls are amateur players who want to be the next Cano. Not long ago, a young Cano was on these same types of fields in hopes of getting signed. Now Cano is a superb player and a willing mentor, someone who sits behind the cage to dispense advice to the parade of hitters that follow him.

Watching the kids watch Cano is riveting. They study how Cano treats batting practice, first by casually spraying balls to left field, then center field and then right field. There is one concession made for Cano’s stardom: the amateurs take their BP hacks off soiled baseballs while Cano’s session features a batch of pearly white baseballs.

Once Cano is prepared to fully unleash his sweet swing, several kids climb the fence in right-center and position themselves about 350 feet from the plate. The outfielders can make more plays behind the fence and they will have a chance to retrieve more baseballs. These kids are on the same field with Cano and they study how diligent and disciplined he is. That has to help them.

“When you’re doing your job and you help your team win a game, that’s when you can enjoy the game,” Cano said. “Most of the kids here want to be professional players and they look at me as a role model. That’s what I’m trying to teach them.”

For Cano, September of 2008, the time when manager Joe Girardi benched him for “a lack of effort,” seems like a long, long time ago. Cano is more mature and much more serious about his game. He had the best season of his career in 2010 when he batted .319 with 29 homers, 109 runs batted in, a .381 on-base percentage and a .534 slugging percentage, but Cano envisions doing even more. When people discuss the premier players in the world, Cano wants to be mentioned early in the conversation.

While interviewing Cano on his home turf, I was intrigued by how candid he was about wanting to be a megastar. Cano wasn’t cocky, just confident. Cano wants the Yankees to win a title. That’s the most important goal. But the better Cano is, the easier it is for the Yankees to win. Cano’s hopeful words should be refreshing to the Yankees.

“I want to see how it feels to do everything,” Cano said. “I want to see how it feels to win an MVP [award]. I already had a World Series ring. I want more.” He added, “I want to have a Gold Glove, which I have right now, an MVP, a batting title. I always want to know how that feels, to be there. So that’s why I work hard every single day to try and get better.”

As Cano praised Roberto Alomar, who was recently elected to the Hall of Fame, I asked him if he ever thought about the Hall. It would have been an easy question to deflect; Derek Jeter does that all the time. But Cano didn’t deflect the question. He embraced it.

“It’s not something I think about, but I do want that,” Cano said. “I don’t want to finish my career and have people say, ‘Oh, he played second base.’ I want them to say more than that.”

Jose Cano, Robinson’s father and a former Major League pitcher, monitors the workouts in a steely way. He is all business. Jose has the stature and the mannerisms of Cito Gaston. When Jose told some players that he needed silence in the dugout so the YES Network could interview him, no one even breathed loudly for the next 15 minutes.

Like Robinson, Jose is almost always at the field. Cano’s name is painted on the blue dugouts. The Orioles used to call the field home for their Dominican academy, but they switched to a different location. Now Jose is rehabilitating the field and tutoring passionate players who are trying to emulate his son. Jose said he is “proud” of what Robinson has done and is trying to do.

"He’s so kind with everybody,” Jose said. “He never lets the money go to his head or nothing like that. I think he’s doing what I told him right now. In the Dominican, he helps a lot of kids.”

What Cano is trying to do is to leave an imprint, on the field and on the streets where he was raised. If Cano sees kids playing baseball when they are supposed to be in school, he scolds them and reminds them of the importance of education. Cano called the Dominican Republic “a poor country,” which motivates him to aid those people who have it tougher than he ever did.

In pursuit of that goal, Cano donated an ambulance to his hometown in 2007. Cano made the donation because one of his friends died from head injuries after tumbling off a motorcycle. Because no ambulance was available, it took over an hour for Cano’s friend to be driven to the hospital in Santo Domingo. Before Cano leaves for Spring Training in Tampa, Fla. next month, he will have donated four ambulances and four school buses to his town.

“We weren’t rich, but I had some things as a kid because my father played baseball,” Cano said. “I want to make a difference for other people.”

Cano usually returns home for lunch after his baseball workout, but on the day Bill Boland, YES Network's senior producer, and I visited him, Cano made a detour. Before Cano even showered, he drove his black Escalade to the C.A.E.S. school, a learning center for deaf children. When Cano pulled into the driveway, dozens of kids flocked to him. The students can’t speak, but they used sign language to communicate with their local hero.

I don’t think Cano knows sign language, but he easily bonded with the kids. He used hand signals and facial expressions to make his points. When Cano saw one boy wearing a 50 Cent t-shirt, he offered a thumbs-up. When a man described the aching story of a sick girl who was resting in her mother’s arms, Cano inched closer to the girl. After Cano hung out with the boys and girls, he gave each of them a toy.

Seeing Cano in these settings, on and off the field, was compelling. Anyone who wants to see some of these scenes with Cano should watch Yankees Hot Stove show on Thursday, January 20. We will also feature my visit with Cano in a future telecast on YES.

Cano was adamant about how much he wants to help Dominicans, stressing that this is where he’ll live after his career ends. His future plans include financing the building of a hospital and a school. We found Cano on a faraway field. Cano looked comfortable there and in every other place he traveled in the Dominican. That’s because he was. This is home.

Follow Jack Curry on Twitter.

Get the ball to Mariano Rivera. It is the winning formula that the Yankees have used since Rivera became their full-time closer in 1997. If the Yankees get the ball to Rivera, their powerful belief is that they should win the game. Getting the ball to Rivera just got easier.

The Yankees have signed Rafael Soriano to a 3-year, $35 million contract, which is pending until he passes a physical. As long as Soriano passes a physical, he will be the highest-paid set up man in the major leagues and should combine with Rivera to give the Yankees the best late-inning combination in baseball. The agreement was first reported by SI.com.

Soriano saved 45 games in 48 opportunities for the Rays last season and was probably the best closer in the American League. Rivera saved 33 games in 38 chances in 2010 and is the best closer of all-time. If the Yankees can secure a lead after seven innings, they will summon Soriano and Rivera to apply sleeper holds on opponents.

“We think we have the best bullpen in baseball,” said one Yankee official.

Once the Yankees failed to sign Cliff Lee, they cringed because they realized it would be much more difficult to improve their rotation. After Lee, there was a monumental drop in the quality of the starting pitchers that were available. General Manager Brian Cashman has shown scant interest in the remaining starters, which is why the Yankees haven’t signed any of them.

But, as the reporting date for pitchers and catchers crept closer, the Yankees grew more interested in adding Soriano. Less than a week after Cashman said he didn’t want to sign Soriano because it would cost the Yankees their first round draft pick, the team pounced on Soriano. Since there were no elite starters available, the Yankees grabbed the elite reliever in Soriano. He was 3-2 with a 1.73 earned run average in his only season with Tampa Bay.

Soriano’s contract calls for him to earn $10 million in 2011, $11 million in 2012 and $14 million in 2013, but there are also two player options in the deal. If Soriano opts out after the first year, he will make $11.5 million. If he opts out after the second year, he will earn a total of $22.5 million. Soriano, 31, is 10 years younger than Rivera, who recently signed a 2-year, $30 million deal. The plan is for Soriano to eventually replace Rivera as the closer, as long as Rivera retires in two years and as long as Soriano is still effective and still with the Yankees. 

With Soriano as the eighth-inning reliever, David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan and Pedro Feliciano will typically be used before the eighth. While there will be some fans who want Chamberlain to be shifted to the rotation, a Yankee official said the team had no plans to do that.

In 2004, Rivera pitched 78 2/3 innings. Since that season, Rivera’s innings totals have fallen in each successive season. He logged 60 innings in 2010. With Soriano in the same bullpen, the Yankees will be more cautious about Rivera’s workload. The Yankees want Rivera to be prepared to do his best pitching if they play in October. In that month, the winning formula is the same. Get the ball to Rivera. 

At the end of a phone interview with Roberto Alomar last May, I mentioned that I had voted for him in his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot. I also told Alomar that I thought it was an injustice that he didn’t get enough votes to be inducted in 2010.

“I thought so, too,” Alomar said.

Alomar uttered the revealing sentence in a casual manner. There was no malice. Alomar knew he would eventually get in to the Hall and that a wrong would eventually be corrected. That happened on Wednesday as Alomar and Bert Blyleven both surpassed the required 75 percent of the vote.

Since I have been a member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for more than 10 years, I have the privilege of voting for the Hall of Fame. This year, I voted for Alomar, Blyleven, Barry Larkin, Tim Raines and Edgar Martinez. I spent considerable time analyzing the careers of Jeff Bagwell and Jack Morris and speaking with players from their eras before deciding not to vote for either. That analysis of Bagwell, Morris and the other candidates will continue.

With the players who performed during the so-called Steroid Era now dotting the Hall of Fame ballot, the voting process has become more difficult. Other than the players who have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs or who have admitted using them, there is no way for voters to truly know if players cheated and artificially enhanced their numbers. That’s the dilemma that voters face as they try to determine if a player deserves baseball’s highest honor. Once a player is enshrined, there’s no way to remove the plaque from Cooperstown.

Some voters have decided that it’s unfair to punish just a few players from the Steroid Era who have been caught cheating or who have admitted cheating. I have a difficult time giving credit to anyone who cheated or anyone who has been connected to cheating, regardless of what anyone else was doing at the time. My position on players from the Steroid Era is to dissect their statistics, but I also interview players from that era and then use that research to make individual decisions.

After Bagwell received 41.7 percent of the vote in his first year on the ballot, he said that he was “happy” to receive those votes. Bagwell, who hit 449 homers, drove in 1,529 runs and scored 1,517 runs in his career, added that, “Guys like me don’t get in easy.” Bagwell was referring to how he didn’t blast 500 homers and get 3,000 hits, milestones statistics that could have boosted his candidacy.

I think Bagwell was a guinea pig for voters. Rafael Palmeiro failed a drug test so his 11 percent vote total wasn’t a shock. Mark McGwire wouldn’t answer questions about steroids at a Congressional hearing and admitted to using them last year, which is why he has never received more than 25 percent of the vote. Bagwell is a player who hit six Minor League homers and then developed into a power hitter, causing suspicion, fairly or unfairly, to follow him.

“Suspicion is going to happen because of the era I played in,” Bagwell said. “Suspicion is ridiculous. Because I worked out? Come on.”

If Bagwell is patient, he might eventually get into the Hall. Blyleven, who received 79.7 percent of the vote in his 14^th year of eligibility, received 17.5 percent in his first season. Bagwell did much better than that in his first season.

Remember how I said my analysis of the candidates will continue? It continued on Wednesday as I spoke with one of Bagwell’s former teammates. The player didn’t want his name used and didn’t want me to write about our conversation, but he gave me some pertinent information about Bagwell. That information will be part of my assessment as I make a decision about Bagwell in 2011.

Voting for Alomar, one of the best second basemen ever, was an easy decision. Back in 1993, as Alomar was helping the Blue Jays win back-to-back championships, I asked him if he was the best player in the American League. Alomar paused. He didn’t want to appear cocky so he said he was “a complete player.” Yes, he was. Now, Alomar’s career is complete, too, because he is also a Hall of Famer.

My interview with Bob Feller had lasted for about two hours and my notebook was stuffed with a few dozen gems. It was time to leave Progressive Field and head to the airport in Cleveland, but Feller wouldn't let me get near a cab. Instead, Feller insisted on driving me to the airport.

No matter how strenuously I argued, Feller wouldn't listen. Can you imagine that scene? I tried to convince Feller that I should take a cab, but my words were meaningless to the Hall of Fame pitcher. He marched off to retrieve his car and told me exactly where to meet him outside the ballpark.

When Feller died of leukemia at the age of 92 last Wednesday, I remembered how I had spent a couple of hours with him two years ago. He was blunt, intelligent and entertaining, a patriotic man who could and would talk about an array of topics. If there's a question Feller was hesitant to answer, I never figured out what it was. I doubt anyone else did, either.

Why did I end up interviewing Feller? Since the 79th All-Star Game was being played at Yankee Stadium in 2008, I searched for some interesting story angles. I learned that Feller and Lonny Frey were the only two surviving players from the 1939 All-Star Game, which was the first time it had been played at the Stadium. That was a story. That was my story. I made plans to interview both men.

On the day I met Feller, he escorted me into a conference room that was spacious enough to fit 50 people. Feller explained that the Indians routinely made this room available to him and made it seem as if it were his unofficial office. He wore a blue blazer that had a Hall of Fame patch on the left pocket.

Talking to Feller was the equivalent of having a time machine. He faced Lou Gehrig, he knew Babe Ruth and he fought in World War II. He won his first game as a 17-year old with the Indians and finished with 266 victories, 279 complete games and three no-hitters. If Feller hadn't volunteered to serve in the Navy for 34 months, his superb statistics would have been gaudier.

During our conversation, the only time Feller turned silent was after I handed him a copy of the box score from the 1939 All-Star Game. Feller notched the last 11 outs as the American League defeated the National League, 3-1. Feller peered at the names in the box score, names like Dickey, Greenberg and Ott, and said nothing for two minutes. Finally, Feller spoke.

"Can I get a copy of this?," he asked.

Sitting in Feller's passenger seat was an experience. He was 89 when he played chauffeur for me, but he drove a sports car. And he didn't drive it like someone who was out for a Sunday drive. Feller knew where the gas pedal was and he knew how to veer in and out of traffic, even if the highway wasn't that congested. I exhaled when he pulled up to the curb at the airport.

Before I left Feller's car, he made me promise that I would mention his museum in Van Meter, Iowa, his hometown, and also asked that I mention his wife, Anne, in the article. Feller stressed that her name included an "e" and said that I shouldn't forget that. Of course, I remembered. Feller's personality made it easy to remember a lot of things.

On the same day that Feller passed away, I learned that Steve Lefkowitz, a friend of mine, had also died. While my connection with Feller was limited to one day, my connection with Lefkowitz was much deeper. He was my agent, a title he disliked, and was the man who convinced me that I could make the transition from a baseball reporter at The New York Times to a baseball analyst at the YES Network.

Although Steve didn't tell the same kind of baseball stories that Feller did, he told his share of interesting baseball stories. He was funny. In any of our conversations, I always laughed at least once. He was opinionated. He spent hours telling me how he would improve the Yankees. He was loyal. He would have driven me to the airport in Cleveland, too, even if we were both in New York. Goodbye, Steve. You will be missed.

As Monday morning became Monday afternoon and then Monday night, the Yankees had an uncomfortable feeling about their negotiations with Cliff Lee. The Yankees had offered the free-agent pitcher a contract that could have been worth about $150 million across seven years last Friday and were waiting for a response. Some Yankees executives were concerned about a mystery team that had joined them and the Rangers in pursuing Lee. 

Before Monday night turned into Tuesday morning, the Yankees discovered that their concerns about a third team wooing Lee were valid. Lee spurned the Yankees and the Rangers to sign a five-year deal with the Phillies for a reported $120 million. Lee bypassed millions from the Yankees to return to the Phillies, a team he helped power to the World Series in 2009. It was a stunning ending to Lee’s free agency.

Rarely does a premier free agent sign with the team that offers the smaller contract. Not only did Lee do that, but he also apparently had two better offers than the one he accepted. The Rangers had offered Lee a six-year deal for more than $130 million that included a vesting option for the seventh year. But Lee, who helped guide the Rangers to the 2010 World Series, didn’t want to stay in Texas and didn’t want to relocate to New York. Instead, Lee wanted to join Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt in a star-studded rotation in Philadelphia. 

For several months, the Yankees have envisioned Lee pitching for them. Now the Yankees can stop imagining it, because it won’t happen. The Yankees were hopeful that making a lucrative offer and giving Lee the chance to presumably compete in the postseason on a routine basis would be enough to sway him to New York. After some fitful days of waiting, days in which the Phillies crept into the bidding in a serious way, Lee chose them over the Yankees and the Rangers.

Because the Yankees failed to sign the pitcher who was the prize of the free-agent market, they will not have Lee and CC Sabathia, his close friend, at the top their rotation. Both pitchers have won Cy Young awards. Phil Hughes, who won 18 games in 2010, and A.J. Burnett, who had a disastrous season, will be in the rotation.  Andy Pettitte hasn’t officially announced if he will return or retire, but he told general manager Brian Cashman that he is leaning toward retirement. The Yankees need to convince Pettitte that they desperately need him to pitch in 2011.

Without Lee, Cashman will need a Plan B or C to complete the rotation. While Zack Greinke of the Royals, another Cy Young Award winner, is available, the Yankees are wary of trying to add a pitcher who had included them on a no-trade list in his contract. As superb as Greinke is, he has battled social anxiety disorder and there are questions about how he would perform in an intense environment like New York.  The Yankees don’t view Greinke as a viable option.

Cashman first targeted Lee in July and was willing to include Jesus Montero, the organization’s top Minor League prospect, in a deal to acquire him. But the Mariners traded Lee to the Rangers. Lee helped the Rangers defeat the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. Ever since the season ended, the Yankees have been extremely aggressive in pushing to sign Lee.

Although the Yankees didn’t love the idea of offering seven years to a 32-year old pitcher who had back problems last season, they felt they needed to do that to outbid the competition. Lee was a free agent at a perfect time because he was much more talented than the next best starting pitcher. The longer Darek Braunecker, Lee’s agent, stretched out the negotiations, the higher the offers escalated. In the end, though, Lee didn’t choose the highest offer. He picked the Phillies. 

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. –- During Brian Cashman’s conversation with Hal Steinbrenner on Thursday morning, Cashman told Steinbrenner that the Yankees were about to add a left-handed starter. Did that mean the team had finally signed Cliff Lee? Not yet. Cashman was referring to Robert Fish, the 22-year-old lefty the Yankees selected in the Rule 5 draft later that day.

That was Cashman’s attempt at being playful and, ever so briefly, taking a respite from the questions about Lee. What Cashman didn’t disclose is how he surely talked to Steinbrenner about increasing the team’s offer to Lee to seven years, a move that came hours after the Red Sox agreed to a seven-year, $142 million contract with Carl Crawford. It is believed the Yankees are willing to pay Lee $161 million across seven years, which would match CC Sabathia’s deal.

The Yankees are antsy about Lee, a pitcher they first tried to acquire in July and have been pursuing since early November. When the Yankees made Lee a six-year offer for about $140 million on Wednesday, there was a belief that they wouldn’t improve it. But, if Crawford and Jayson Werth could secure seven-year deals, the Yankees felt it was necessary to do the same with Lee.

“I know what we’re willing to do,” Cashman said. “The player and his agent know what we’re willing to do. I can’t tell you if it’s two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years. We know. They know. That’s all that matters.”

Since the Rangers, the other club that has been pursuing Lee, seemed reluctant to stretch beyond a five-year deal, would a seven-year offer clinch Lee’s signing? It would seem probable because no other team is likely to match the offer, but the Yankees were waiting on a response from Lee. Darek Braunecker, Lee’s agent, has been a deliberate negotiator, which has helped the offers escalate.    

Jon Daniels, the Rangers’ general manager, declined to discuss any specifics, but looked somber as he invited reporters to “draw your own conclusions” about whether the team could compete with a seven-year offer. The Rangers were looking for answers from Lee on Thursday as team representatives traveled to Arkansas to meet with the pitcher. A baseball official said the Rangers were prepared to boost their offer to six years. But would the Rangers go to a seventh year?

“We have to be concerned about seven years because seven years is really stretching it out,” Nolan Ryan, the Rangers’ president, told ESPN Radio. “And I don’t know how you predict how anyone is performing six or seven years from now.”

As word about Crawford’s agreement with the Red Sox leaked out late Wednesday night, there were visible reactions at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel. A Red Sox official scampered across the lobby. Some fans screamed and gave each other high-fives. Reporters reached for their phones to try and confirm the news.

About a half hour after the news broke, I found Cashman in the lobby. When I asked Cashman what he thought about Boston’s splashy signing, he shook his head. Cashman said the Red Sox had made major improvements and would be an even tougher rival. He reiterated those thoughts Thursday.

“They’ve got a great team,” Cashman said. “They had two huge acquisitions. They’re loading up like they always do, but this is even more significant than a typical Red Sox reload. So they’ve done a great job so far.”

Cashman had dinner with Crawford’s agents on Tuesday, which was a bluff and was probably designed to get the Red Sox to inflate their offer to the leftfielder. The Yankees never made an offer to Crawford, and Cashman conceded that the Yankees weren’t interested in signing him. The Red Sox made an offer to Mariano Rivera, who the Yankees then signed quickly, and they also made a seven-year offer to Lee. Cashman might have been returning the favor by feigning interest in Crawford.

Although the Yankees added a seventh year to their Lee offer, Cashman insisted that he wasn’t impacted by what the Red Sox did with Crawford. Cashman has been on a mission to get Lee for a long time and, regardless of what happened with Crawford, that mission hasn’t changed. 

“Our desire is the same today as it was prior to that signing,” Cashman said. “I don’t think you can increase [that desire] anymore. We have a significant interest in Cliff Lee and we communicated that. They know it.”

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The Yankees intensified their pursuit of Cliff Lee on Wednesday by making a lucrative offer to the free agent pitcher. General Manager Brian Cashman disclosed that he had made the offer, but he wouldn’t be specific about it. The Yankees probably offered Lee a six-year deal for about $140 million.

Soon after Darek Braunecker received the offer, he left the Winter Meetings and returned to Arkansas to meet with Lee. Was Braunecker’s departure a promising sign for the Yankees? The Yankees hope so. Cashman had been frustrated by the sluggish pace of the negotiations with Braunecker. Now Cashman and the Yankees will wait to hear from Lee.

“This,” Cashman said, “is someone who is worth the wait.”

Even though Braunecker officially received Cashman’s offer, he has known that the Yankees would likely be willing to offer six years for about $140 million because the two sides had discussed parameters. The Yankees’ offer is slightly more than Johan Santana’s six-year, $137.5 million package with the Mets in 2008.

While several baseball officials believe the Yankees and the Rangers are the teams with the best chance to sign Lee, Braunecker said he has “significantly more” teams involved. There have been reports that two teams have made seven-year proposals to Lee, but no team has acknowledged making them. Cashman wouldn’t say if he believed Lee had any seven-year offers.

Privately, the Yankees also believe that the quest for Lee is between them and the Rangers. Braunecker might have been meeting with other teams here to try and persuade the Yankees and the Rangers, the two favorites, to bid even more for Lee. An executive from one of Lee’s former teams said the Angels, who are poised to spend lavishly after a disappointing 2010, could also be lying “in the weeds” in pursuit of Lee.

While Cashman has waded through the Lee negotiations, he has also shown some interest in Carl Crawford. Cashman had dinner with Crawford's agents on Tuesday, which could be interpreted as a bluff. When Cashman was asked about Crawford, he said that he has “cast a wide net” in his pursuit of players.

Until the Lee situation is resolved, Cashman conceded that he is restricted in the moves that he can make. Cashman said that he feels like “Hannibal Lecter in a strait jacket right now waiting on this Cliff Lee thing.”

The Yankees are also waiting on Andy Pettitte’s decision about 2011. Pettitte called Cashman on Wednesday and told the GM that he was still undecided retiring or pitching and stressed that he didn’t want to prevent the Yankees from making other personnel moves. It sounded like Pettitte was closer to retiring than pitching.

“He’s not made a decision to retire,” Cashman said. “If I had to bet at some point, I think he’d play. He’s telling me right now he’s leaning the other way.”

TAMPA – Ask Derek Jeter where he will be eating dinner and he might say, “A restaurant.” Ask Jeter where he plans to travel on vacation and he might say, “Someplace warm.” Ask Jeter to describe a conversation with a teammate, a conversation 50,000 people saw, and he might say, “I don’t remember it.” For Jeter, dispensing a modicum of information is a sound strategy.

Throughout Jeter’s successful career, he has been the master at protecting his privacy. Jeter is politely evasive, routinely declining to discuss injuries, insults or innuendo. At the beginning of Jeter’s career, he decided that he never wanted his own words to create trouble. So Jeter has been selective about what he will discuss, a shrewd way to avoid controversies.

But Jeter wasn’t able to keep his compelling negotiations with the Yankees from seeping into the news media, a development that annoyed him. When the Yankees formally announced Jeter’s new contract Tuesday, it took Jeter less than two minutes to cite how disappointed he was that some details of his talks had been publicized.

“From my understanding, it was supposed to be a private negotiation,” Jeter said. “That wasn’t the case. So, yeah, I was angry that some things had gotten out, especially how things were portrayed because, from my understanding, it was a negotiation."

Jeter agreed to a 3-year, $51 million contract that includes a fourth-year player option for $8 million. Before the sides settled on this deal, Jeter had been seeking a four or five year deal for about $23 million a year.  Jeter said he was perturbed with how he “was portrayed,” and that his reported salary requests were “pretty much inaccurate.” But Jeter also declined to reveal specifics about the negotiations.

As careful as Jeter is about his words, it was notable that he expressed his disappointment in such a public manner. With Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ managing general partner, to Jeter’s left and General Manager Brian Cashman to Jeter’s right, the 36-year old shortstop offered his assessment of the negotiations. Jeter said it wasn’t an enjoyable experience. The Yankees seemingly concurred.

“There’s no doubt there were times it was difficult,” Steinbrenner said. “Any negotiation can get messy.”

These negotiations began to get tidier after Casey Close, Jeter’s agent, contacted Steinbrenner last week and the two sides met here. The Yankees emphasized how much they wanted Jeter and Jeter stressed how much he wanted to be a Yankee. The sides agreed to be creative in trying to eliminate the financial stalemate. Cashman said that resulted in Randy Levine, the Yankees’ president, formulating the incentive package that was part of Jeter’s deal.

“I think once we sat down face to face last week and really decided that enough was enough as far as the media and what was happening up there – that wasn’t good for anybody- we hammered it out,” Steinbrenner said.

Cashman acknowledged there was “some turbulence” during the negotiations, but, unlike the wounded Jeter, Cashman likened the back-and-forth chatter to a family squabble.

“Even brothers and sisters fight,” Cashman said. “But, at the end of the day, we all got where we wanted to be, which is him running out to play shortstop for us.”

Jeter has always insisted that he is concerned with how the Yankees do and doesn’t focus on personal milestones. After Jeter allowed himself one day to talk about the negotiations, he would be wise to return to that same team-first approach. Forget about the personal gripes and get back to the team stuff. Jeter has probably already starting doing that.

As Jeter explained how pleased he was to be a Yankee, he softened a bit and noted how there are “things that go back and forth” during negotiations.  Jeter said the only thing that would have upset him was if he wasn’t with the Yankees. That is a development no one could have envisioned, no matter how turbulent it got.

“Of course I need the Yankees,” Jeter said. “And I’d like to think they need me as well.”

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – General manager Brian Cashman fired a football to Billy Eppler, his assistant, in the Yankees’ hotel suite on Monday. Eppler whipped it back as the two men shattered the rules about playing indoors with a ball and acted like kids for a few minutes. It was a brief respite from their serious offseason pursuit of a specific left-handed thrower.

A few feet from where Cashman and Eppler imitated Drew Brees, the Yankees had laptops and piles of paper resting on a long table. Somewhere in that mix, there was undoubtedly information about Cliff Lee, not that the Yankees needed any updated information on a superb pitcher they are chasing.

The Yankees have really been chasing Lee since July, when they thought they had acquired him from the Seattle Mariners. Now the Yankees have locked their focus on Lee at the winter meetings and seem prepared to give him a six-year contract. It is uncertain how much the Yankees are willing to pay him, but it is likely to be at least $140 million. The New York Post reported that the Yankees might go as high as $150 million.

When I asked Cashman if he knew the maximum proposal that he would make to Lee, he said that he did. Of course, he wouldn’t reveal that amount during an interview on the YES Network, but the Yankees aren’t delusional about Lee’s hefty price tag. The Rangers are also pursuing Lee, although it seems unlikely that they will make a six-year offer. Cashman seems willing to do that.

“We’re going to take advantage of the time frame while we’re down here, meeting with him as many times as necessary to make it hard for him to go anywhere but choose New York,” Cashman said.

As Darek Braunecker, Lee’s agent, stood in the lobby of the Walt Disney World Dolphin hotel on Monday, he was in a jovial mood. Why wouldn’t he be? Braunecker is representing the jewel of the free agent class, an elite pitcher in a free agent market that has no pitchers like him. The Yankees don’t want to have a Plan B if they fail to sign Lee because any Plan B would be a major disappointment.

“It’s good to be Cliff Lee,” Braunecker said.

Cashman met with Braunecker in his suite on Monday and will surely speak to the agent again on Tuesday. As part of Cashman’s courting of Lee, he visited the pitcher in Arkansas. Braunecker joked that Cashman “offered to come back as many times as necessary.” Perhaps Braunecker wasn’t joking. Maybe Cashman would rent an apartment in Lee’s home state if that helped him secure Lee.

Two years ago, Cashman bolted from the winter meetings in Las Vegas and visited CC Sabathia at Sabathia’s home in California. Cashman said that he wasn’t going to leave until Sabathia had agreed to a contract, which Sabathia did when the Yankee offer mushroomed to seven years and $161 million. Sabathia later told teammates that he wasn’t expecting the Yankees to add a seventh year.

I don’t think Cashman will offer Lee a seven-year contract, even though there has been speculation that another team might do that. But I don’t think the Yankees will have to offer Lee seven years to secure him. Several baseball executives agreed, saying that the Yankees will probably sign Lee to a six-year deal.

As Cashman stood in his suite on Monday, I asked the GM if he thought Lee would sign a deal before the meetings ended on Thursday. Cashman wasn’t sure. Cashman said he would “love to be in a position to say, ‘Hey, Cliff Lee is going to be a New Yorker,” but he wouldn’t predict if that will happen. For now, Cashman is still chasing Lee, the pitcher he’s been chasing for a while.

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When the Yankees met with Derek Jeter last Tuesday, both sides promised to be creative in trying to bridge a gulf that existed in their contract negotiations. Less than a week later, that’s exactly what the Yankees and their shortstop did in finally agreeing to a deal Saturday. The deal is pending Jeter passing a physical.

Jeter and the Yankees agreed to a three-year, $51 million contract that could also include a fourth year. Jeter has a player option for $8 million in the fourth year, which could boost his guaranteed money to $56 million. In addition, Jeter has the chance to earn up to $9 million in incentives in the fourth year.

The deal averages to $17 million for the first three years, which includes a $3 million buyout in the fourth year. If Jeter doesn’t exercise the $8 million option in 2014, he will make $51 million. If Jeter exercises the $8 million option, he loses the $3 million buyout and is guaranteed $56 million over the life of the contract. But Jeter can increase his fourth-year salary by reaching some incentives. That is where the Yankees and Jeter got creative.

Jeter’s contract includes a point system in which he earns points for winning the Most Valuable Player Award or finishing in the top six in the voting, for winning the Silver Slugger Award, for being named MVP in the World Series or the League Championship Series, or for winning the Gold Glove. If and when Jeter notches any of those incentives, he will earn an undisclosed amount of points. After three years, those points will translate to a dollar amount, which will be added to Jeter’s salary in 2014. Jeter can earn as much as $9 million in incentives, so the maximum amount he could earn in the final year of the deal is $17 million. The most Jeter could earn in all four years is $65 million.

If Jeter doesn’t maximize the $9 million in incentives across the first three seasons, he also has the chance to earn points in the fourth year of the contract and therefore add to his $8 million salary. In addition, Jeter agreed to defer some money in the deal.

Derek Jeter has officially agreed to a three-year contract with the Yankees for between $15 and $17 million a year, according to a person directly involved in the negotiations. The deal includes a fourth-year option that isn't a vesting or club option. The deal was consummated on Saturday afternoon and is pending a physical.

The fourth year of the deal was important to Jeter, who said in spring training that he wanted to play four or five more seasons. But the Yankees didn’t want to guarantee a fourth year to Jeter, who had the worst season of his career when he batted .270 in 2010 and who will turn 37 years old in June. The sides vowed to be creative in trying to secure a deal, which is why they were finalizing a hybrid option that will include various elements and won’t be fully guaranteed. The sides met deep into the night on Friday and were talking again on Saturday.

As part of Jeter’s deal, the Yankees have convinced the shortstop to defer an undisclosed amount of money. Mariano Rivera, who has agreed to a 2-year, $30 million deal, has also agreed to defer an undisclosed amount. The Yankees are confident that the contracts with their two legendary players will be completed by the time the Winter Meetings start in Orlando on Monday.