Yankees re-sign CC Sabathia to a one-year, $8 million deal

According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, CC Sabathia will be back with the Yankees in 2019 for his eleventh season in pinstripes after he signed a one-year, $8 million deal.

Just a week after resigning Brett Gardner the Yankees went ahead and resigned CC to a similar one -year deal. CC will enter 2019 as the second-longest tenured Yankee behind Gardner in what will likely be the final season of what should go down as a Hall of Fame career.

CC is a solid back of the rotation starter and a terrific clubhouse leader, but you have to think there are more moves to come from the Yankees to upgrade the starting staff for next season. $8 million for one year is a fair deal for CC at this point in his career and apparently, he accepted less to return to New York because he had no interest in playing elsewhere according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.

2019 should be a milestone season for CC as he’s only 14 strikeouts shy of 3000 for his career and four wins shy of 250. As long as he stays healthy it’s a sure thing CC reaches those totals and it’s only right that he does so in a Yankee uniform.

When the season ended I figured the Yankees would look to add a couple of frontline staters before deciding whether or not to bring back CC but it’s clear now that both sides wanted to get something done quickly. It’s good to have CC back for one more season, but the front office still has a lot more work to do to make sure the Yanks have a rotation capable of leading them to a championship in 2019.

The rotation failed the Yankees this past postseason and right now even with CC back in the fold there’s still need for improvement. The hope is that Cashman can sign (or trade) for another two front of the rotation type arms to round things out along with CC, Masahiro Tanaka, and Luis Severino. If a trade for Corey Kluber or Carlos Carrasco isn’t in the cards the two names to keep an eye on to fill those spots are Patrick Corbin and J.A. Happ.

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I don’t think the Yankees can risk going into next season with CC as anything other than their fifth-best starter so adding Corbin and Happ to pitch in front of him is something that needs to be heavily pursued. According to reports from SNY, Happ has already had preliminary talks with the Yanks, but like Corbin, he’ll have many suitors vying to sign him.

We’ll have to wait and see how things play out but if the Yankees really want Corbin, in particular, they should be able to get him. The interest as we all know is mutual.

Corbin grew up a Yankee fan in Syracuse New York and he talked earlier this season about how he’d love to play for his childhood team. It’s going to take a lot to get him (possibly 5 yrs, $100-plus million), but the Yankees have the funds to offer him a big deal.

Happ might be tougher to resign because he could be looking for a three-year deal and I’m not sure the Yanks would be willing to offer him that considering he’ll be 36 next season. However, if they did offer him a two-year deal with a club option for a third year at around $13-14 million a season that could be enough to get him.