Andy Pettitte not a factor in Yankees' decision to draft son Luke, Damon Oppenheimer says

Get this out of the way first: no, the Yankees drafting Luke Pettitte was not a case of nepotism.

Though, for obvious reasons, from the outside it could look that way.

Pettitte, a two-way player and one of 20 players the Yankees selected in the MLB Draft, is the son of franchise legend, Andy Pettitte.

The latter, of course, was a member of five World Series winning teams with the Yankees and is MLB’s all-time leader in postseason wins, among the lefthander’s many career accolades. He has been a special adviser in the organization since 2023 and, in that time, has bonded with a number of Yankees pitchers, that lengthy list including Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, Gerrit Cole and Max Fried.

But, said Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees director of amateur scouting who is in his 34th season with the club and who has overseen the draft since 2005, none of that had an impact on the decision to pick the 21-year-old Pettitte in the eighth round out of Dallas Baptist University.

“This was pretty organic scouting,” Oppenheimer said Monday afternoon on a conference call. “This kid did his stuff on his own to our scouting department without the assistance of Andy pushing it or talking about it or anything like that. I think they [the Pettitte family] were actually surprised we were the team that took him.”

Oppenheimer, in fact, said he did not talk to Andy Pettitte in the days or weeks leading up to the draft, though he did, naturally, after the Yankees took his son.

“Andy was ecstatic,” Oppenheimer said.

Luke Pettitte did not pitch this spring in college, his junior season, after undergoing Tommy John surgery last year. He instead took up hitting and, as a full-time DH, slashed .337/.403/.693 with 16 homers in 42 games.

As much promise as he showed as a hitter, the amateur scouting community generally sees Pettitte projecting more of a pitcher than a hitter in the big leagues should he progress that far.

“The pure stuff from a pitching standpoint is really plus level,” one amateur scout said via text, adding that Pettitte, who posted a 3.19 ERA across his freshman and sophomore seasons, has “two high-spin breaking” balls to go with a deceptive fastball that currently top out at 94 mph. “Has an MLB-average changeup, too.”

Oppenheimer, however, said the Yankees will give Pettitte, whom they expect to eventually sign, an opportunity to pitch and hit once in the organization.

“His performance will allow us to decide whether he can do both or not,” Oppenheimer said.