Yankees - Signed Sabathia

New York Yankees - Signed P C.C. Sabathia to a 6-year, $142 million contract.

Well that was something of a letdown. I think most of us were poised
for a lot of posturing and a lengthy negotiation that in the end would
see CC re-signing with the Yankees.

Did he leave anything on the table either in terms of length of
contract or dollar per year? Could be, but I’m skeptical that he left
a lot. In effect he signed for 5 years at $117 million (but with a
potential $5 million buyout at the end) and Cliff Lee got $120
million. That’s a sensible baseline for Sabathia’s value on the free
market. Yes, it’s reported that Lee didn’t take the highest offer, but
that’s still a pretty fair estimate of what the Yankees would be
competing against.

In the end he got an extra year at very nice money and an off-season
free of angst. Plenty of people would see that as a worthwhile trade,
particularly as there’s no guarantee that he would have done better on
the open market. I’m sure CC is as aware as anybody of the fact that
his size is a potential issue to some people. To be clear, I’m not
among them. I can think of a few really big pitchers who had knee
problems (probably) related to their size, but really all pitchers are
a risk and the size issue is a minor one as best I can tell.