New York Yankees C.C. Sabathia Not Thinking Retirement

New York Yankees starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia has no plans to retire and hopes to continue pitching for multiple seasons.

The New York Yankees look ready to head into Spring Training with the roster that they currently have. There could be a couple of tweaks, but one thing that is for sure is that C.C. Sabathia will be in the Yankees starting rotation. If he had his way, he will be in the starting rotation for the Yankees, or another MLB franchise, for years to come.

Sabathia saw teammates Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira retire last season, but he has no such plans on the horizon. In fact, he wants to do the opposite.

"“If anything, it made me want to play as long as I can,’’ Sabathia said during a recent sit-down with The Record at Yankee Stadium. “As long as I’m healthy and feeling good, I want to play.’’"

Sabathia certainly looked like he felt good last season and was healthy for the first time in a while physically and mentally. Sabathia has been a workhorse in his career, making at least 28 starts every year from his rookie year through 2013; a timespan of 13 seasons. It is an accomplishment for some players to avoid the disabled list for 13 weeks, let alone 13 years.

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But, in 2014, Sabathia began to wear down. His degenerative knee condition required surgery, which limited him to only eight starts. He was able to make 29 starts in 2015, but they were mostly ineffective as he finished the season 6-10 with a 4.73 ERA. It was also revealed that he was battling an alcohol problem, as he spent that October in rehab.

Sabathia’s career looked like it was going off the rails as he struggled off the field and on the field. The Yankees gave him no guarantees heading into Spring Training last year, as he battled with Ivan Nova for the fifth spot in the starting rotation. He won that spot and put together his best season since 2012.

Sabathia made 30 starts for the Yankees in 2016, going 9-12 with a 3.91 ERA. The biggest thing for the turnaround, Sabathia said, was his health.

"“It’s easy to talk about the things you want to do, or that you want to accomplish,” he said. “But it’s hard to do it when you’re not healthy, when you’re not able to go out and repeat your delivery and stuff.“So, I think last year was just a combination of me being healthy and being able to use the weapons I’ve developed over the last couple of years and put that all together,” he said. “And hopefully, I can just keep continuing to get better going forward.’’"

Sabathia looks to have successfully reinvented himself. Earlier in his career, he threw hard and was able to rely solely on his stuff. Now, he has developed into a finesse pitcher, learning to really work the zone instead of just trying to blow opponents away.

At 36-years old, Sabathia is entering the final stages of his career. But, the Yankees still need him, as he is a key cog in their otherwise shaky rotation. He, along with Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda, are the only ones with jobs locked down.

While Sabathia has already begun playing catch at Yankee Stadium, general manager Brian Cashman said the Yankees will take it slow with their veteran to start.

"“Given that he had the (right knee) cleanup, we’ll be careful with him out of the gate,’’ said general manager Brian Cashman, referring to Sabathia’s arthroscopic surgery in October. “But otherwise, I know his expectations and hopes are to pitch for another four or five years or something like that.“It’s a big year for him. It’s his free-agent walk year. And I’ll sign up right now to get what we got out of him last year,’’ Cashman said. “He was very effective.’’"

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The Yankees are hoping that Sabathia can carry that effectiveness over into 2017 that he had in 2016. If he is able to repeat that performance, he should have no problem landing another contract next winter whether it be from the Yankees or another team. Starting pitching is always in demand, a veteran such as Sabathia would undoubtedly be helpful to a number of teams.

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