Sabathia to retire at end of year

CC Sabathia can envision the perfect ending to his final big league season.

“Right now I’m just focused on trying to win the championship and have a parade at the end of the year,” Sabathia said Saturday. “That would be a great way to top this thing off.”

The 38-year-old Sabathia agreed in early November to an $8 million one-year contract and said 2019 will be his last season.

Sabathia had a stent inserted after a blockage was found in an artery from his heart in December. He has had chronic right knee problem that has required several operations.

“Why now? It’s time,” Sabathia said with a laugh. “My knee, just the shape that it’s in. My family is getting older. It’s time for me to be with them and be around them.”

When asked about his dad being home more, son Carter replied, “I know it will be two times funnier in the house because you’re funny and mom’s funny.”

The 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner with Cleveland, Sabathia is 246-153 with a 3.70 ERA and 2,986 strikeouts in 18 major league seasons. He was 9-7 with a 3.65 ERA in 29 starts last season. He pitched for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2008. This will be his 11th year with the Yankees.

Wainwright predicts strike: St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright became the latest player to voice his concern over the slow free agent market and even forecasted a strike midseason.

“Unless something changes, there’s going to be a strike, 100 percent,” Wainwright told InsideSTL.com on Friday.

“I’m just worried people are going to walk out midseason . ...

“Thirty owners need to be answering that because you have one of the best players in the game that needs a job and no one is signing him. You’ve got 30 owners who have a sabermetric box that will sign players when they were in that box. They don’t take any intangibles or anything else into play and that’s a sad thing.”

With full squads reporting to camp in the coming days, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel remained unsigned, among many others.