Yankees: Don’t Worry About CC – He’s Gonna Be Just Fine

The Yankees took a shellacking from the Braves on Sunday, and one of their veteran starters was at the forefront of the assault. Not to worry, though. Not to worry at all.

If the Yankees ever needed CC Sabathia more than in 2017, you’d have to go all the way back to the championship year of 2009 when George Steinbrenner loaded up in an all-out effort to bring the Yankees back to winning form.

Sabathia responded in a big way, logging 230 innings over 34 starts and winning 19 games. He was 28 years old then and in the prime of his career.

“Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated” (Mark Twain)

Even back then, there was always talk about when the workhorse would need to be retired and brought back to the barn. Nine years later, though, Sabathia is still here. In mid-July, he will be 37 and still be pitching for the New York Yankees will not win another nineteen games for the team and it is unlikely that he’ll make 34 starts this season. But his presence on and off the mound will be a major cog on a staff that, with the exception of Masahiro Tanaka, is trying to find itself.

When a veteran pitcher like Sabathia gets lit up, as he did on Sunday with no thanks to the defense behind him and Joe Girardi has to remove him from a Spring Training game, he’s more likely to draw attention to himself with cries of “Father Time” shouted from the grandstand and media.

But, in fact, it’s more like the great American writer, Mark Twain, once said, when he commented, “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” And so, too, it is with CC.

When asked on Sunday if he was concerned about Sabathia’s outing, Girardi said nothing, choosing instead to make a little circle with his thumb and forefinger indicating a “zero.” And that’s because Girardi knows that anytime you

And that’s because Girardi knows that anytime you are talking about a man whose 300 lb body has logged almost 3,400 innings in a big league uniform, you have to know that body will be a little creaky on some days and not be able to force the command needed to get major league hitters out.

Yankees Get More Than Just A Pitcher With CC

But if you are Girardi, you also have to know that over the long haul of a six-month regular season, Sabathia will not only show up, but he’ll also compete in a manner that the likes of Michael Pineda, Luis Severino, and a few others should take stock of and note.

For himself, Sabathia has already made known that 2017 is not going to be his last hurrah and that he intends to pitch in 2018. And even with his contract with the Yankees expiring at the end of this season, he’d like to be pitching in New York again.

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With all the young talent beneath Sabathia, that’s probably going to be a longshot at best. But at the same time, the Yankees know that CC is the last remaining vestige of the type of pitchers (and players too) they once had whose name is W-I-N-N-I-N-G.

Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter, and Jorge Posada are now only memories. And despite the obvious that Gary Sanchez is going to be something very special in the Yankees clubhouse for a long time to come, he is not going to be in full bloom for a while.

Leaving Sabathia and to a less extent, Brett Gardner, left to be the role models and mentors that every winning team seems to have. Last season, it was Mike Napoli who took over that role with the Cleveland Indians while the Chicago Cubs latched on to David Ross as their guiding light that saw them to the end of the tunnel.

The Yankees need more than the nine wins Sabathia gave them in 2016. But the good news is that CC Sabathia knows that and he will be out there competing every fifth day like the old workhorse he is, and always has been.

Yankees: Any which Way You Can Is Just Fine, Jacoby

Yankees center fielder, Jacoby Ellsbury, is showing signs of unleashing himself this Spring. And he's doing it his own. Fine, any which way you can.

Don’t worry about CC. Rumors of his death on Sunday are greatly exaggerated.