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Yankees Editorial: Health & Finesse Key for C.C. Sabathia in 2015

By Lionel Olivo

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C.C. Sabathia, once revered for his ability to eat up innings, is looking to bounce back from a dismal 2014 season. Last year he pitched in only eight games and amassed an ERA of 5.28. His season was cut short due to an ailing knee, which resulted in season-ending surgery to remove a bone spur. If Sabathia plans to remain an important part of the rotation, successful handling of his health issues and declining velocity will be critical. 

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According to Brian Hoch of MLB.Com, Sabathia hopes to return to his workhorse way. “Hopefully this year I can go out and try to make 30 starts and just be healthy and try to help the team win,” he said.

This season staying healthy will be challenging to say the least. According to D.J. Short from NBC Sports, doctors informed Sabathia that his knee will never be 100% throughout the remainder of his playing career. Aside from that, it will also require constant maintenance, which will include stem cell and platelet-rich plasma injections. However, his knee is only one of the health concerns an aging pitcher has to contend with in baseball. There’s also their declining velocity.

Unless there’s a meta-human hiding inside his once ample frame, he should start thinking how to remain an effective pitcher without heavily relying on his fastball. According to Fangraphs, he’s used that pitch consistently in his career (47% or 10,727 out of 22,593 pitches) but it has already began to show signs of decline. While he was once able to blow hitters away with a 99 mph fastball, last year he was only able to reach 92 mph. It remains to be seen if the decline was due to the discomfort he was feeling due to the undiagnosed injury, or if age is catching up with him.

If age is truly the culprit behind Sabathia’s decline, then he will need to evolve from power pitching to finesse pitching. At some point in time, every pitcher in the league must go down that path if they hope to remain a part of professional baseball for the foreseeable future.

New York Yankees legend David Cone alluded to the needed shift in philosophy and expressed support for Sabathia’s transition in an interview with WFAN according to Ryan Hatch from www.nj.com last week. “It’s tough to go from a four-seam power guy to a two-seam sinker kind of guy,” Cone said. “I think he can do it. I really do. With his changeup and sinker, and his good slider, he can throw to both sides of the plate.”

As bad as 2014 was for Sabathia, it wasn’t all bad. Statistics show that during his outings last year he relied on his sinker (29% or 233 of 798 pitches) rather than his four-seam fastball (20% 165 of 798 pitches). This trend shows an evolution and a willingness to rely on guile rather than over-powering batters to get outs.

It remains to be seen if Sabathia will make the adjustments necessary to remain a viable part of the New York Yankees. However, the 2015 season promises to be an interesting one.

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