The Yankees have activated southpaw C.C. Sabathia from the injured list, as per a club press release. Left-hander Stephen Tarpley was optioned to Triple-A last night to create a 25-man roster spot for Sabathia, who is set to start today’s game against the White Sox.
Sabathia underwent both a minor knee surgery and an angioplasty during the offseason, leading the Yankees to make the IL placement in order to give the 38-year-old time to properly ramp up his preparation. He technically began the season on the active roster, in order to get a five-game suspension out of the way (Sabathia was issued the suspension for hitting Jesus Sucre with a pitch in a game late last year) before he hit the IL on April 3.
Now, Sabathia is ready to begin what will be his 19th and final Major League season. The veteran re-signed with New York on a one-year, $8MM deal in early November, as there was never much doubt that Sabathia would don the pinstripes one more time. Though the Yankees will monitor Sabathia’s innings and usage as a nod to his age and injury history, he has continued to provide solid results in the rotation. Sabathia has a 3.76 ERA, 7.7 K/9 rate, and 2.48 K/BB rate over 481 1/3 innings since the start of the 2016 season.
Sabathia’s return patches at least one hole in the Yankees’ injury-riddled roster, though the team still has a whopping 11 players on the injured list. Rotation-wise, Sabathia joins Masahiro Tanaka, James Paxton, J.A. Happ in the starting five, while Domingo German continues to fill in for the sidelined Luis Severino.
Always liked CC for sure, but he should of retired.
“Sabathia has a 3.76 ERA, 7.7 K/9 rate, and 2.48 K/BB rate over 481 1/3 innings since the start of the 2016 season.”
Way to cherry pick guy. How about looking at his second half of 2018, this is pretty much what is expected going forward, and probably worse. It was a waste of salary to re-sign him, because there was better options.
Wait. Guy calls 3 years of stats, cherry picking. Then proceeds to cherry pick half a season of stats. LMAO.
Exactly… basically, he did a terrible job of cherrypicking. But, He another FAN in long list of fans that think they can do a better job than management. Apparently QUALITY MLB pitchers are falling off trees and are easily attainable.
Cherry picking “3 years of stats” gives the impression that player is gonna put up the same numbers going forward. When in fact his late 2018 stats show with injuries, age, and of course the heart & knee concerns is how he’ll perform going forward. Maybe not even as good as his second half 2018 performances.
You can argue either way, I guess, but the Yankees are
glad to have him back for now.
troll-smasher – Corbin only cost money. Hal decided to sign Happ and CC instead. Keuchel still looking for a job as well.
The Yankees will trade CC straight up for your son.
Nahh, I can see Kyle signing one of those trendy team-friendly extensions.
Cereal, you’re reaching. There’s no evidence that his decline in the second half is strictly due to anything not correctable. He should, in theory, be healthier than he has been the last couple seasons. There’s no telling what the yanks can expect from him, honestly, but it’s silly to suggest he’s certain to remain locked into decline form. Could happen, but who knows? Five shutout innings so far…
Furthermore, he pitched to a 3.93 era with 63 k’s in 53 innings his last 10 starts. So I’m not even sure your sample of argument is really all that valid.
CC just pulled out of the KFC drive thru with a family size bucket of chicken. He will eat all that in one sitting including the mashed potatoes and gravy and Mac n cheese.
With your predictions cereal the best meal now for you is a bag of chips.
Cereal has a stale hard on for CC. It’s time to give it up or move onto another team.
Absolutely, except you’re expecting past performance to continue into his age 39 season with two bad knees.
As a #5, CC is an attractive, cheap option. Problem is, the fragility of most of the rotation now pushes him up.
CC is the best option right now and will have a better start then Happ, German, loaisiga, and probably paxton.
Now that’s just sad.
Agreed, but that really highlights the weakness of the Yanks rotation.
Boone is already worried about wearing out the depleted pen. In 2018, CC averaged a little over 5 innings a start, went more than 5 innings in 11 out of 29 starts.
If the Yanks get close to that this year, it’s a big success for CC. If.
5 innings of shutout ball guess your right he should just hang them up
Against one of the worst teams in the game.
Ivan Nova looked like Tom Seaver against the Yankees.
MLB needs to fix how suspensions are served.
How does this affect your life??
How does any of this affect our lives?? We’re fans, dude.
“We’re fans dude” Wow that answers everything.
Gotta love the big smile in that pic, probably taken right after they told him they got the locker room spread all ready for him.
Nah, he was probably looking at his bank statement.
How many MLB players have been >= 300 lbs during their playing careers?
Big Sexy?
He said 300, Big Sloppi Colon and CupCake Sabathia are 350+
R.I.P. pregame catering
If he goes 3 innings and gives up 4 runs he’s easily the #2 SP behind Tanaka.
Jeez- cash really knows how to build a staff doesn’t he?
And he’s be the Red Sox Ace 🙂
Also, hard to build a staff when nearly half the staff is on the DL.
“And he’s be the Red Sox Ace:)” You Can’t Be SERIOUS!!!
You’re right. It’s “he’d”, not “he’s”.
I’d like to amend my comment to read
“Cash is a genius. Cc is the renewer #1 staff ace and man that GM really knew what he was doing this offseason”
Let’s be honest – can’t expect much from CC. 5 innings is a bonus. Yankees are in a win now mode. Couldn’t have predicted some of the injuries but Steinbrenner needs to open the wallet for Keuchel
Time has passed them by for opening the wallet.
How many #5 starters provide lots of innings to begin with? Very few.
There are a projected 150 SP in baseball. Last year Sabathia ranked 74th in IP. Literally in the middle of the pack. That would mean the average team only had 2-3 SP throw more IP than CC.
That’s the flaw in your logic. Fill the rotation with the best pitchers you can, don’t fill “slots”.
How many rotations in baseball have 5 pitchers that were better than CC last year?
If you’d like to use the usual ERA, CC had a 3.65 ERA last year. Only 6 teams in baseball had their starters with a better ERA than 3.65 (Astros, Dodgers, Indians, Braves, Cardinals, Mets).
And among the projected starters for the season for those teams, CC had a better ERA than 2 Astros pitchers, 1 Dodger pitcher (and 1 the same), 1 Indian pitcher, 2 Braves pitchers, 1 Cardinal pitcher, and 2 Mets pitchers
So back to my original question, if we use ERA, how many pitchers last season had a rotation with 5 pitchers better than CC? The answer is None.
And FWIW, none of those teams rotations had 5 pitchers with more IP than CC either.
You are still using last year and expecting results to carry forward to this year.
Happ was 7-0 with a 2.69 ERA for the Yanks in 11 regular season starts last year. What does that have to do with how he’s performed this year?
Also, forget about what anyone else has. Build the best rotation you can period.
The Yanks financial advantage is still tremendous and they could have had a better rotation than what they have now.
Cleveland
“The Yanks financial advantage is still tremendous and they could have had a better rotation than what they have now.”
Sure, but outside of Corbin (and to an extent Keuchel who is still available), the SP market wasn’t that strong this last offseason. Forgive me if I’m missing someone.
By fWAR you’re actually right with Cleveland. Bieber was their “worst” starter. Had a higher WAR than Sabathia (2.7 to 2.5) but a far worse ERA (4.55)
Corbin over Happ would have been nice, big upgrade.
Keuchel’s decline is scary, but there are some that feel his durability and pitchability would allow him to succeed anywhere.
If you want to go back further, we could revisit other potential trades and acquisitions that were deemed too costly in terms of contract assumption or prospect cost, Verlander and Cole are the ones that come immediately to mind.
That said, CC did as best as anyone could expect today. He’s got to do a lot more, but he’s not the problem right now.
This wasn’t the best possible team the Yanks could field.
And he was there number five starter in Cleveland who missed part of the year while Sabathia was the number two or number three starter with New York?
Hello Horace. Can you hear me? Those earbuds are glued into your skull. It’s the first month of the season bud. So let’s not get too excited supporting your arm chair GM opinions.
Hi mikeyank55, thanks for your sage advice.
Then show everyone some restraint here or we will think that rookies can’t learn.
Let’s be smart chuck. What’s CC’s record the last three years AFTER a Yankee loss.
Ok now your apology may be accepted.
CC’s charity work is extensive. He’s s class guy who loves his family and community.
Glad to see him doing well, health wise.
Thanks for your smart insight Halo. Unlike the Yankee haters you have a sensibility, while they are puffing their chests with moronic remarks.
mikeyank55..the voice of reason from the ankle monitor crowd. Funny how he’s absent from Mets articles these days.
Hey Pope-you are right that I do not post much historically at the
Beginning of the season for the Mets.
So let’s look at some facts:
The Mets have the best record for opening day in the past 50 years.
Nobody cares about above when you don’t bring home the WS Championship trophy.
Last year they were on fire in April into early May.
Then Pope, in your words please describe the next 6 weeks of the season.
BTW Pope-you May have spoken too quickly. That was some prestigious record that Matz tied last night.
How would you describe his outing against the Phillies, Pope?