Around Baseball: Sabathia Reported To Have Accepted Yankees Offer |

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Around Baseball: Sabathia Reported To Have Accepted Yankees Offer

By Administrator | December 10, 2008

The NY Post is reporting that CC Sabathia has decided to accept the NY Yankees’ six-year, $140 million contract proposal. [ESPN.com is reporting that a deal is 'very close', but that several details still have to be worked out]

The offer has been on the table for a month, but Sabathia — who has stated all along that he would prefer to pitch in California (where he resides) and in the National League (where he can hit) — has heretofore declined to make a decision. But after three consecutive days of meetings with Yankees GM Brian Cashman, which included Cashman flying to San Francisco yesterday to meet with the big lefty, Sabathia is said to have finally made up his mind.

Over the last couple of weeks, Team Steinbrenner had grown nervous that their inflated offer hadn’t been accepted… as a result, many pundits speculated Sabathia was trying to avoid playing in New York. Sabathia’s reticence had caused the Yankees to lay back on other potential maneuvers (Mark Teixeira, AJ Burnett, etc), but as the Winter Meetings progressed it is possible that the Yankees grew impatient with Sabathia’s posturing and placed an expiration date on the offer. [The newspaper says that one source described Cashman as pushing in a much more forceful way to begin closing deals, with or without Sabathia, leading to speculation he may have prepared a deadline for Sabathia]

And so Cashman flew to San Francisco to meet again with Sabathia his wife, Amber. The Post reports that it was in this meeting that Sabathia expressed that he wanted “the responsibility that comes with being the big man for the biggest team”.

The Yankees pinned their entire off-season strategy on acquiring Sabathia — a staff ace who is still in his prime (28 years old). Last year, a season removed from winning the AL Cy Young, he went 17-10, 2.70, between the Indians and Brewers. The Post declared that he is “the first major new piece to be put into the new Yankee Stadium”. Will more follow? The Yankees are expected to continue spending with their newly-expanded revenue stream flush with cash, and they’re expected to go after pitching, pitching and more pitching.

[This, just days after they asked tax payers to provide more money to their new ballpark!! The audacity!!]

Cashman has expressed a willingness to exceed the four-year, $60 million offer the Braves extended to righty A J Burnett (notably, they are considering an offer of a guaranteed fifth year - which Burnett is said to want - if that is what it takes to close the deal)… but that was before Sabathia signed on. Will they be as anxious with Burnett as they would have been sans-CC?

Cashman has also met with Scott Boras about Derek Lowe, and the Yankees appear willing to go to the four-year, $60 million plus range for the former Red Sox sinkerballer.

In addition, the club has talked with agents for several other starters, including Andy Pettitte, Randy Wolf, Oliver Perez and Ben Sheets.

It is unclear at this time whether the Sabathia deal will take the Yankees out of the market for 1B Mark Teixeira — the apple of Theo Epstein’s eye.

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UPDATE: ESPN.com writer Buster Olney has reported that the Yankees added a seventh year to their original six-year, $140 million offer to Sabathia in order to close the deal - the seventh year brings the total package to seven years and $161 million. The AAV of $23 million per season is the largest contract for any pitcher in history.

Sources have told Olney that the deal is effectively a three year deal with a player option for four years thereafter… Sabathia can either opt out of the deal after three years or stick around for four additional years at $100 million.

Topics: Around Baseball |

2 Responses to “Around Baseball: Sabathia Reported To Have Accepted Yankees Offer”

SeaBeachFred Says:
December 10th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Well surprise surprise!!!!!! Once again, it’s always about the money—ALWAYS ABOUT THE MONEY!!!!
Anthony Says:
December 10th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Im not worried I knew no matter where he went he end up with a deal like that, but cc hates being the center of attentiona and hates the media. he will crack under pressure and now be worth 140 million. If I was to pay someone that much Id want to see them win everygame and play straight through the 9th inning and close it out.