Yankees Should Take a Different Approach with CC Sabathia

The New York Yankees need a new strategy for handling struggling veteran starting pitcher CC Sabathia going into next season.

Sunday’s 5-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox was just the latest example of Yankees manager Joe Girardi mishandling starter CC Sabathia. The 36-year-old lefty was solid through his first four innings, holding the mighty Red Sox offense scoreless and entering the fifth with a 4-0 lead. However, as has been the case all year, when trouble started brewing in the middle innings, the skipper left the vet to battle through it, ultimately blowing a comfortable lead.

Sabathia was set to face the top of the Red Sox order for the third time in the contest. That alone should have been a red flag for Girardi with his team fighting for its nearly extinguished playoff hopes. Opposing batters this year have a 73 OPS+ the first time facing Sabathia, a 92 OPS+ the second time through, and a 110 OPS+ the third time.

It should come as no surprise that CC nearly allowed a homer to the first batter he faced, walked the third, and finally allowed a monster three-run shot to Hanley Ramirez, shrinking the Yankees lead to one.

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Astoundingly, Girardi sent Sabathia back out again in the sixth inning despite his pitching count sitting at 101 and his struggles the previous inning. It took three straight singles for the manager to finally remove his starter from the game, but the lead had already been blown and the sweep now seemed inevitable.

For the record, batters have a 128 OPS+ this year off CC when he passes the 75 pitch mark and a 144 OPS+ when he is over 100 pitches. This has been a consistent trend all year that New York is unwilling to acknowledge and adapt to for whatever reason.

With Sabathia nearly certain to remain in the team’s rotation through 2017, this is a problem that needs to be addressed. One obvious solution is an approach the team took with another struggling starter in 2013. When Phil Hughes was struggling later in games that season, Girardi assigned him a caddy, long-reliever David Huff. Both pitchers split the start, each going around 3-4 innings.

The Yankees already have a perfect caddy for CC in-house with struggling 22-year-old starter Luis Severino. Acting as Sabathia’s caddy would allow the club to ease Severino back into a starter-ish role next season, keeping him stretched out and facing a lineup multiple times, but in a lower-pressure situation.

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Girardi always seems to defer to veterans to a fault, so this seems extremely unlikely to actually happen. Sabathia is one of the most respected leaders in New York’s clubhouse, and the coaching staff would probably be reluctant to make any decisions that reflect a lack of confidence in him. There’s very little reason to think the status quo will change anytime soon unless Sabathia becomes A-Rod-level awful.