Yanks’ Sabathia looks ahead to 2017 and beyond
Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira stepped off the New York Yankees stage in 2016, leaving CC Sabathia as the last pillar from the 2009 World Series championship team.
But those farewells didn’t stir Sabathia with thoughts of his own retirement.
“If anything, it made me want to play as long as I can,” Sabathia said in an interview at Yankee Stadium. “As long as I’m healthy and feeling good, I want to play.”
Sabathia’s contract expires after this season, but he said he didn’t expect there would be anything sentimental about his 2017 starts in the Bronx.
“If it’s my last year, I’m sure I’ll pitch here again, whether it’s in a different uniform or whatever,” he said.
For now, Sabathia, 36, is essential to the Yankees’ fragile 2017 hopes — a turnabout from spring training 2016, when he battled Ivan Nova to win the No. 5 rotation spot.
“Given that he had the (right knee) cleanup, we’ll be careful with him out of the gate,” general manager Brian Cashman said, 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. He was very effective.”
Sabathia’s degenerative right knee condition led to surgery in 2014, when he made eight starts. A strong finish in 2015 belied deeper issues; Sabathia spent that October in alcohol rehabilitation. But the 2016 season — with 30 starts and a 3.91 ERA, his lowest since 2012 — infused Sabathia with optimism.
“The past couple of years have seen me try to develop into this pitcher that I want to be. Last year was a huge step toward that,” Sabathia said of the transition from left-handed power arm to finesse pitcher.
A sturdier right knee brace proved helpful, but the most important factor was being healthy, Sabathia said.
“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. And hopefully I can just keep continuing to get better going forward.”
Sabathia has begun playing catch at Yankee Stadium, where he regularly works out before spring training. But it was another early offseason for the Yankees, leaving them to watch relievers Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman — 2016 teammates traded to the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs, respectively— battle in the World Series.
“What Miller was able to do during the playoffs was unbelievable. I thought the way that they used Chapman, in trying to use him like Miller, was a mistake,” Sabathia said, echoing Chapman’s sentiments about Cubs manager Joe Maddon’s usage.
Either way, it was jarring to see both players dealt away from a mediocre Yankees team in midsummer, Sabathia said.
“Especially at my stage of career,” he said. “You want to win. And when you’re trading your best players, it’s not giving off the best signals.
“But you’ve got to look at the guys you have in the clubhouse and rally around that and still play for pride. And we ended up playing exceptionally well and almost making the playoffs.”
Catcher Gary Sanchez’s ascension and the late-season experience other youngsters gained have fueled Sabathia’s hopes for 2017.
“There’s no altered expectations. This is the Yankees. You don’t sign up to not try to win,” Sabathia said. “So I’m sure everybody is going to come in hopefully with that mind-set. That’s the way I’m approaching it.”