Yankees offer C.C. Sabathia $140 million

November 14, 2008

By DailySkew

Well, let the free agent bidding wars begin. This reminds me of one of my favorite computer games: OOTP Baseball.

GM Brian Cashman and the NY Yankees offered ace C.C. Sabathia $140 million dollars over 6 years (an average of $22,300,000 per year).

Looks like the Yanks are dead serious about winning in 2009, especially since that contract was the 1st offer, and is likely to increase.

C.C. is 28 years old, in his prime, and the only real questions are #1: Will his weight be an issue during these 6 years, and more importantly #2: Will all the innings and pitches C.C. has thrown catch up to him and result in injuries? C.C has one other flaw: his post-season stats suck, but he got the Milwaukee Brewers into the post season in 2008 by going 11-2 with 7 complete games down the stretch. The problem is how tired he gets by being such a workhorse (3-days rest under stress) down the stretch.

Every team with big money will bid for C.C., including the Mets.

Are there cheaper alternatives? Yes, but none of them are true aces, like C.C. Although he never won 20 games in his 8-year career, he did win the 2007 Cy Young Award, has a career record of 117-73, averages 222 innings, is a 3-time All-Star, and loves going into the 8th or 9th inning. Would he be overpaid? Yes, of course. But the Yanks are hoping their rotation will be unstoppable: C.C., Wang, Joba, Moose/Andy, Hughes