Analyzing the CC Sabathia Deal
Did the New York Yankees Make the right Move?
Despite coming out publicly that he preferred to play in the National League, desired to play on the West Coast and hoped to play for a California team, CC Sabathia took the New York Yankees’ record-breaking offer instead of standing firm on where he wanted to play next season.
With today’s signing, the Yankees were able to lock up the most prized pitcher on the free agent market. In order to do that, New York had to give Sabathia the richest contract ever given to an MLB pitcher, which is also the third largest current contract in baseball. Only future teammates Alex Rodriguez (10 years, $275 million) and Derek Jeter (10 years, $189 million) have larger contracts than Sabathia’s deal.
With so much money thrown at the 28-year-old, nine-year veteran from Vallejo, Calif., the question that must be asked is whether or not this move was justified.
At 4.58, the Yankees had the ninth ranked ERA among American League starting rotations last season. New York was also tied for last in complete games with one. In just his time with the Brewers, Sabathia had seven complete games in 17 starts last season. Furthermore, his ERA was 1.65 with Milwaukee and 2.70 overall in 2008.
Another factor that had to have been accounted for in the Yankees’ decision was the recent retirement of Mike Mussina, the team’s only 20-game winner last season, and the uncertain future of Andy Pettitte. If Pettitte decides to retire or move on to another franchise, CC’s presence becomes even more important to an already thin Yankee rotation.
With as much upside as there is to the signing, there’s also as much downside to signing the pitcher long-term.
Sabathia’s record-breaking deal is preceded by two other record-breaking deals in 2007 and 2008. Barry Zito, who signed a then record deal for pitchers in 2007, hasn’t nearly lived up to his seven-year, $126 million price tag. Two seasons deep into the deal, Zito has gone 21-30 and has already been dubbed as one of the biggest free agent busts in history.
Zito’s contract was eventually upstaged in 2008 by Johan Santana’s six-year, $137.5 million contract with the New York Mets. Unlike Zito, Santana did very well in his first go-around in New York, going 16-7 with a 2.53 ERA and finishing third in the National League Cy Young voting.
Signing a pitcher long-term is also risky due to the fact that starting pitchers are frequent visitors of the disabled list. The most heralded example of this is that of left-handed pitcher Mike Hampton. After going 15-10 with a 3.14 ERA for the Mets in 2000, Hampton signed an eight-year, $120 million contract to pitch for the Colorado Rockies in 2001. In those eight years, Hampton was frequently haunted by injuries to a point where he didn’t pitch in 2006 and 2007 due to elbow problems. In the games he did pitch during those eight years, Hampton went 56-52 for the Rockies and Atlanta Braves.
With all of this in mind, Sabathia’s deal probably was justified, given the current state of New York’s rotation. Though the size of the deal may seem crazy, it might have taken that amount of money to convince Sabathia to don pinstripes next season instead of pitching closer to home.
Only time will tell if this deal will lead to the Yankees' first championship since 2000 or to another discussion on the biggest free agent busts of all-time.
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