New York Yankees News: Is CC Sabathia’s Career Over?

When CC Sabathia was forced to undergo season ending arthroscopic knee surgery in 2014, there were concerns about whether or not the former Cy Young Award winner would ever pitch in the major leagues again.

The same question is now back in play after an incident that happened in Sunday’s series finale against his former Cleveland Indians.

The work horse pulled himself out of the ballgame after just 2.2 innings pitched, which is completely out of character for the gritty veteran.

The bad news is he pulled himself because he was experiencing right-knee pain that felt eerily similar to the discomfort he felt in his knee last July when he was shutdown for the remainder of the season.

As Sabathia is waiting for the results of an MRI, one has to wonder if the results will finally reveal that he needs the career threatening microfracture surgery that he was lucky to avoid last season?

Brian Cashman immediately noted that the big southpaw will probably be placed on the 15-day DL as both he and skipper Joe Girardi contemplate his future.

As far as Sabathia knows about his future, it’s not much.

"“I don’t know,” he told Brendan Kuty of NJ.com. “We’ll have to wait and see. I’m looking forward to doing all the treatment, doing everything I need to try to get back on the field. It’s just super frustrating because it’s still in there,” Sabathia said of his pitching arm. “You guys, the last couple starts, you can see. It’s just frustrating that I can’t do it every time.”"

Given the history of CC’s ongoing lower body injuries, it’s safe to assume that the pain won’t be going away anytime soon, and that it’s certainly going require some sort of medical procedure to fix. Especially because CC was basically monitoring his knee early in the season by altering the landing spot of his right foot at the end of his rotation.

When we all saw Sabathia’s velocity increase over the last month and a half, he admitted on Sunday that it was because he was “just saying, ‘Screw it'” and pitching with his old form. Interestingly enough, he said that’s when the pain started to occur.

One has to wonder if Sabathia has anything left in the tank, especially if he’s required to undergo season ending surgery and rehab for an extended amount of time before ever picking up a baseball again.

Stay tuned.

New York Yankees News: Is CC Sabathia’s Career Over?

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