CC Sabathia to the Yankees

December 10, 2008

After roughly three weeks, CC Sabathia finally signed with the Yankees. The Yankees initially offered Sabathia six years at $140 million, but upped their offer to seven years $160 million. That was unnecessary, in my opinion, and a waste of money as well. Sure it had taken Sabathia a long time to respond, but the Brewers offered him $100 million, and there was a $40 million dollar difference to begin with, and no California team had made him an offer. It did not seem like the Yankees needed to increase their offer, but perhaps they did so to make it clear to Sabathia that the Yankees were indeed, the highest bidders. 

So what does this mean for our classic rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox? Well the Yankees really just bolstered their starting pitching, so that really puts them in contention for the AL East title. Now, that’s not to say that they weren’t in contention this past year… they had a lot of potential, but they were just plagued with injury after injury. The AL East is going to be absolutely crazy this year with the Rays, the Red Sox, and the Yankees. 

I haven’t heard much on the Hot Stove about the Rays, it’d be smart for them to lay low, they don’t really need to make any moves since they did get to the World Series. 

The Red Sox are in the “top four finalists” for Mark Texieria, as well as the Angels, Orioles, and Nationals. Then again, like I’ve said before, I really don’t think that we need him that badly. Sure he’d be a great addition since he’s young, a .300 hitter, and 30 HR hitter, but we got to Game 7 last year! It’s not like we were in last place, dying of run support (well, sometimes run support). We had 95 wins last year, if we don’t get him, it’s not the end of the world. 

The Yankees could be adding more to their starting rotation, they reportedly made an offer for five years to AJ Burnett, and are looking into Derek Lowe as well. The Yankees and the Phillies are reportedly the top two bidders on Lowe right now. Now, I know this probably won’t happen, but can you imagine if the Yankees added Burnett, and Lowe, retained Andy Petite, and had Cheng Meng-Weng (yes, I know, spelled incorrectly)? That would be absolutely insane. 

So back to the question: what does this mean for the Sox-Yankees rivalry. Well, remember that the Sox have faced Sabathia before, when he was in an Indians uniform in the 2007 ALCS. Sabathia won the Cy Young award that year, but I honestly think that Beckett should’ve won it that year (I’m not saying this as a biased Red Sox fan either). The Beckett and Sabathia matchups were absolutely incredible and beautiful to watch. The two best pitchers in baseball (at that time) going head to head. Beckett prevailed in both of those games, and wound up being the ALCS MVP. Now that Sabathia is on the Yankees, this means more Beckett vs Sabathia matchups hopefully (if the rotations work out that way). This means that the Red Sox vs Yankees games this year are going to be better than ever!

On to some Red Sox news and rumors (of course). Like I said, we’re in the top four contenders for Teixeria. If he does come to the Red Sox, I am resolved to learn how to spell his name. I can spell Yastrzemski but I can’t spell Teixeria? Anyway, the in the Rule 5 draft, the Sox selected Angels right handed pitcher Miguel Gonzalez. No other team has made an offer to our captain besides the Red Sox… the terms of the deal are unknown. Kevin Cash is available for arbitration, I did not know this, but it could be that he won’t fit into the plans for the Sox next season, he is the most likely candidate to be “non-tendered”. It seems like the Sox would be looking like a “complement” to Varitek with more offensive potential than Cash. 

Written by elidreesox Posted in Dailies Tagged with CC Sabathia, Josh Beckett, Kevin Cash