Plea to get rid of C.C. Sabathia

Last night the Yankees were beaten by the Blue Jays 5-1. It is not about the loss itself. You can’t win them all. It is about C.C. Sabathia.

We all know that C.C. always needs a couple of games to find his groove. And indeed, on April 20 he pitched a good game: eight innings, two earned runs on seven hits, three walks and five Ks. I thought: “He’s back”. But I also realized that it takes more than one swallow to make a summer. Unfortunately he was beaten up again in his next start vs the Mets.

Sabathia used to be a great pitcher. Especially in his final 2.5 years with the Indians, his half season with the Brewers and his first four seasons with the Yankees. But the last two seasons were rather injury riddled. Can you blame him for it? Yes and no.
You cannot blame him for a bonespur in his elbow that was removed through arthroscopic surgery. But I think you can blame him for his knee problems. We all know that C.C. isn’t a light weight pitcher. And I think that his weight may have caused the knee problems.

In 2013 his velocity began to drop, so he wasn’t the overpowering pitcher he used to be. For the first time in his career he had to rely on location. In that season he still managed to win fourteen games.
In 2014 his season ended prematurely due to the knee problems. Where Sabathia weighed 275 pounds in 2013, the scale now stops at 285. This must give an enormous pressure on his right knee when he lands after his windup.

Can a club demand that a player looks after his weight and that he takes good care of himself? I think a club can. The club is paying his salary You expect that he does everything possible to perform as well as possible. With all due respect, but I don’t think that is the case with C.C. at the moment.

Of course ERA is a team stat, but it is an indication of how good a pitcher is. When I look to C.C.’s ERA at the moment, I dare to say that he is not so good right now. Opponents are hitting a whopping .313 with him on the mound.

So the question is: “Should the Yankees get rid of Sabathia?”

I am not the average Yankee fan who wants a player to take a hike after he gets in a slump for two weeks. I think every player should get a fair chance. But looking to Sabathia’s numbers, one has to admit that they are going downhill. The problem is that the Yanks are stuck to this ridiculous contract. Sabathia is on the Yankees’ 2015 payroll for $23,000,000. The next two seasons will put a total of $50,000,000 on his bank account. So that is guaranteed money for a pitcher whose numbers are declining.

IMHO the Yankees should take their loss and try to trade him. You can wonder which club will be crazy enough to trade for a pitcher who is on the decline. What to ask in return for him? How much money will the Yankees eat? I don’t think that you will get much more in return than twenty boxes of baseballs and a dozen of 33 inch maple bats.

Another option would be to release him. Why not? They have to pay him the money anyway. I see every game in which he starts as a calculated loss. If they Yankees keep him on the roster, they will lose on two fronts: On the field and financially.

In the course of this season, Ivan Nova will return after Tommy John surgery. If he can put up the numbers like he did, he can fill in the void that Sabathia leaves when he is traded or released.

How much I’d like to see him being traded or being released, that does not mean that I am not rooting for him to do well. If he does well, the Yankees do well. It does not make sense to boo a player on your team.

Of course, when the Yankees release him, they will throw away a lot of money. But it would not be the first time. I sure hope that it will be the last time.