Stellar start:
Using finesse, veteran lefty off to strong start
Pitcher CC Sabathia is using precision instead of power to get hitters out, and it’s prompting talk of him being around another season.
With the thinnest of smiles, CC Sabathia says he’d like to keep pitching as long as he’s healthy. Which means, oh, maybe forever. Try to argue otherwise with the left-hander who has become a full-service illusionist in the post-arthritic stage of his career.
Crazy, isn’t it, that a 36-year-old with 3,200 innings extracted from his arm and no cartilage in his right knee has become the New York Yankees’ best pitcher.
Sabathia worked his magic in a 3-2 win against the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday, and it was no stretch to say it was his best game in years: one run, three hits in 7 1⁄3 innings, six strikeouts.
Sabathia should have called it a day after seven, but the Yankees’ short bullpen compelled Joe Girardi to squeeze one more inning out of the big man. Jedd Gyorko’s solo home run spoiled the shutout in the eighth, but the point already had been driven home multiple times throughout the afternoon.
And that is: Sabathia has achieved a level of expertise in precision strikes and smart sequencing that would have been unfathomable even two years ago. He has become a machine who could continue to help the Yankees if that knee holds up.
And if it does? Would the Yankees consider bringing Sabathia back in 2018 on a one-year deal? This one-time heresy has to be taken seriously. After all, the Yankees could lose Masahiro Tanaka, who can opt out of contract after this season, and Michael Pineda, who will be a free agent as well.
There are few difference-makers waiting on the horizon; the market for starting pitchers won’t explode until 2019.
That makes a seasoned, mature veteran such as Sabathia look all the more attractive.
“As long as possible,” is his boilerplate answer to questions about extending his 17-year-career. Sabathia would like to return to the Yankees but has made it clear he’ll sign elsewhere if that’s what it takes to keep pitching.
Team officials say it’s far too early to consider Sabathia’s future in the Bronx. He has had two knee surgeries in the last four years, which means the Yankees are focused only on getting through the season and then freeing up his $25 million salary. Still, it’s hard to argue against the efficiency Sabathia displayed against the Cardinals, even a second and third time through the lineup.
With OK-but-not-great velocity — he averaged 91 mph on the sinker — Sabathia was brilliant at hitting his spots. A whopping 71% of his fastballs were delivered in the strike zone. Even more impressive was the cut fastball, which Sabathia uses on both corners and was thrown for strikes 63% of the time.
“Not too many (hitters) can cover inside or outside (corners) at the same time. They have to cheat one way or the other,” said catcher Kyle Higashioka, explaining how Sabathia has been so good at neutralizing opponents.
He has an uncanny sense when it comes to knowing at which side of the plate hitters are guessing. Sabathia will promptly exploit the opposite, most vulnerable corner. That usually means busting the cutter inside on a right-handed hitter who’s leaning over the plate, looking for a changeup.
It’s not exactly a he-man’s approach to pitching — think Greg Maddux instead of Aroldis Chapman — but Sabathia says “I don’t really miss it” when someone recalled the high-90s fastball of his youth.
“I enjoy what I’m doing now,” he said. “I’m confident I can get hitters out this way. I can throw everything to both sides of the plate.”
Girardi likes to say the big man has become more creative in the final stages of his career. That’s a polite way of saying Sabathia lost his fastball years ago. But we already know that.
The better question is what the Yankees do with this voodoo. One more contract for Sabathia?
Maybe it’s not such a crazy thought after all.