Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, on the 60-day disabled list, told the New York Post on Sunday that his injured ankle “hasn’t healed up as much as [the doctors] thought it would.” He added that he pushed himself a little too much recently and will have to take it easy in the near future. Pettitte has been out since fracturing his left ankle in late June.

“Doc said he was hoping it would be healed a little better than it was,” Pettitte said. “The first two weeks it healed really quick and I feel like we have slowed down a little bit. He said, ‘Let’s try to stay off it a little bit.’ That is where we are at.”

Pettitte had been throwing pitches on flat ground and was all the way up to 55 pitches. Last week in Seattle, though, he felt he pushed himself too much, and so he has been trying to stay off his feet for the last couple of days to relieve the swelling.

So for now, Pettitte is temporarily shutting down throwing to see if the swelling in his ankle goes down, then he will resume his rehab.

Pettitte went 3-3 with a 3.22 ERA in nine starts before landing on the DL.

Even without Pettitte, the Yankees are running away with the American League East right now as they are up 7 1/2 games over 2nd place Baltimore and Tampa Bay.

With this news, you have to wonder if the Yanks will make a move at the trade deadline on Tuesday. They’ve somehow managed to get by with Freddy Garcia holding down Pettitte’s spot in the rotation. Garcia is 4-4 with a 5.16 ERA but hasn’t pitched horrible in Pettitte’s place.

Technically, Pettitte could come back to the Yankees by early September but this latest setback puts that date in jeopardy. But because of Pettitte’s age and their need for him to be healthy for the playoffs, the Yankees are in no way rushing back their 40-year old veteran lefty.

Pettitte is the all-time leader for pitchers with 19 postseason victories and the Yankees need him if they want to make a serious run at a World Series in 2012.

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Brian Sinkoff is a licensed Real Estate agent with Coldwell Banker Prime Properties. He’s been in media for nearly 20 years. Sinkoff is frequent contributor for Time Warner Cable Sports television and also was host of “Sound-off with Sinkoff” – which was on the ESPN Radio affiliate in Albany, NY from 2008-11.