By Barry Millman
It's been coming for some time now. Two years to be precise.
For the first time since pulling the pinstripes onto his massive frame in 2009, Carsten Charles Sabathia won't be on the mound Opening Day.
Manager Joe Girardi announced Friday that Masahiro Tanaka will lead the team into the 2015 season, followed in the rotation by Michael Pineda, then CC, then new acquisition Nathan Eovaldi and then, almost certainly, long reliever Adam Warren, who will hold down the fifth spot until the true starter, Ivan Nova arrives from the disabled list around June 1st.
The decision was a surprise to nobody, least of all the big man himself, who seemed to be sending a cautionary message of sorts to management two weeks ago, when the prospect of his six-year run as Opening Day starter ending was broached by Peter Kerasotis of The New York Times, following his shaky first spring outing.
“I can't say that’s going to make or break me,” he said. “I want to be there in September, or for Game 1 of any playoff series.”
Consider that response for a moment.
This is from a pitcher who, for whatever the cause, is one of the primary reasons his team missed the playoffs two years in a row.
That takes balls the size of five-gallon buckets.
But balls are one thing Sabathia has always had. Balls and heart.
At 33, he has pitched more innings than all but two active pitchers, both older than him by several years. The word "workhorse" was invented for him, and he wears the miles on his meaty left arm with pride.
Which, sadly, is why he has come to this painful juncture where he is now publicly known as the third man in the rotation and- if performance, and not money or memories determined the decision- would likely be lower.
Somewhere between 2012, when the perennial All-Star candidate led the league in strikeouts to walks ratio, and 2013 when he led the league in earned runs allowed, he ran into an invisible wall of accumulated wear and tear. Hard. And he hasn't been the same.
First came the elbow surgery and shocking loss of weight, and then the abbreviated 2014 season and shutdown, and then the knee surgery and long rehabilitation.
Now the balls he throws find wood as often as they find his catcher's mitt. And with few pundits picking the team to go far this season, he feels the need to remind a reporter he still wants the ball in game 1 of a playoff series.
The fact is that, regardless of what Sabathia wants, the Yankees no longer expect or need Sabathia to be a playoff pitcher.
They've built a promising staff of fine young fireballers with at least two ace-caliber arms and possibly more.
What they do expect and need from him is to stop being a dumpster fire and go deep enough into games to avoid burning up the bullpen every time he's handed the ball.
In other words, a solid back-end rotation inning-eater. And that's going to take reps. Lots of them. Enough so that he knows how not to leave anything up and over the center of the plate.
It won't be hard to tell when he figures it out because the ball will stop leaving the park and leaving dents in the outfield padding as it has been when he's thrown it the last two seasons and in several abbreviated outings this spring.
With an 11.57 ERA, time is running out and Yankee Universe is hoping it will click sooner than later because, with three years and $73 million remaining on his deal, they can't send him down, they can't trade him, they can't release him, and they can't bench him.
There are only two ways they can deal with a bad case of CC if he doesn't come around: Conjure up a phantom pain or strain attributed to one of his recent surgeries and park him on the disabled list, or punt him to the bullpen to work out his issues.
Right now, he's one of the most expensive non-aces in the history of MLB. But that's ok because that's the price the Yankees sometimes pay to lock up one of the great players of an era for the long haul.
He's brought a lot of wins, good will, and value to the Yankees over his career, and his work ethic is unquestioned. The fans are squarely on his side.
But he's struggled to adjust his game as his giant body and borderline Hall of Fame skills have declined.
There are great hopes that with his pain relieved and his lost body weight restored this year that he can regain his former equilibrium and find his balance point and comfort zone at a lower velocity.
He's spent time taking instruction from Andy Pettitte, the Yankees' beloved ageless wonder who in 18 years in the majors never had a losing season in no small part due to extraordinary command and control of a sinking two-seam fastball that he could throw inside to batters on either side of the plate.
As he struggles to re-learn how to pitch without his old velocity, he must also unlearn how he pitched with pain for the last two years.
Following a 2.2-inning outing against the Mets last week in which he gave up three home runs, he pronounced himself encouraged, more so by the lack of discomfort he felt than by his results.
“I said to (pitching coach) Larry (Rothschild) that I felt a lot better than I did last spring,’’ he said.
A perfectly valid talking point for someone who began last season coming off elbow surgery that supposedly cleaned out the painful cause of his prior disappointing season; only to have it cut short by a painful knee requiring yet another date with the surgeon's knife.
But he continued.
“I would rather get my a** kicked like I did today than give up no runs and felt like I did last year.’’
From a fan standpoint, that's probably not the order of priorities you want to hear.
One could chalk it up to the sheer exuberance of relief from extended pain if not for Rothschild's less-than-exuberant rejoinder.
After some grasping for vague signs of progress, he abruptly ended his post-game analysis with: "If he is encouraged, I am encouraged. I think he will get on a run and pitch the way we have seen him pitch.’’
Having not seen CC pitch well, or at all, in quite some time, such a pronouncement is likely unsettling for some Yankee fans.
But assuming the best case scenario, "the way we have seen him pitch" means 20 to 25 starts of six-inning, three-run ball, that would, at the very least, make baseball's most expensive inning-eater one of its most productive.
And that would go a long way toward helping the Yankees' pitching staff to potentially becoming one of the American League's most lethal units this season.
A hungry CC gobbling up innings instead of bullpen arms would be a major step on the path to an AL East title and the Yankees' first playoff appearance in three seasons.
And then he may get the ball for that playoff game he wants so much.
October is a long way off, though, and he must first learn to command all his pitches. And Opening Day is almost upon him.
And for the first time since he christened the new Yankee Stadium with its very first pitch six years ago, it will come and go without him.
It's been coming for some time now. Two years to be precise.
For the first time since pulling the pinstripes onto his massive frame in 2009, Carsten Charles Sabathia won't be on the mound Opening Day.
Manager Joe Girardi announced Friday that Masahiro Tanaka will lead the team into the 2015 season, followed in the rotation by Michael Pineda, then CC, then new acquisition Nathan Eovaldi and then, almost certainly, long reliever Adam Warren, who will hold down the fifth spot until the true starter, Ivan Nova arrives from the disabled list around June 1st.
The decision was a surprise to nobody, least of all the big man himself, who seemed to be sending a cautionary message of sorts to management two weeks ago, when the prospect of his six-year run as Opening Day starter ending was broached by Peter Kerasotis of The New York Times, following his shaky first spring outing.
“I can't say that’s going to make or break me,” he said. “I want to be there in September, or for Game 1 of any playoff series.”
Consider that response for a moment.
This is from a pitcher who, for whatever the cause, is one of the primary reasons his team missed the playoffs two years in a row.
That takes balls the size of five-gallon buckets.
But balls are one thing Sabathia has always had. Balls and heart.
At 33, he has pitched more innings than all but two active pitchers, both older than him by several years. The word "workhorse" was invented for him, and he wears the miles on his meaty left arm with pride.
Which, sadly, is why he has come to this painful juncture where he is now publicly known as the third man in the rotation and- if performance, and not money or memories determined the decision- would likely be lower.
Somewhere between 2012, when the perennial All-Star candidate led the league in strikeouts to walks ratio, and 2013 when he led the league in earned runs allowed, he ran into an invisible wall of accumulated wear and tear. Hard. And he hasn't been the same.
First came the elbow surgery and shocking loss of weight, and then the abbreviated 2014 season and shutdown, and then the knee surgery and long rehabilitation.
Now the balls he throws find wood as often as they find his catcher's mitt. And with few pundits picking the team to go far this season, he feels the need to remind a reporter he still wants the ball in game 1 of a playoff series.
The fact is that, regardless of what Sabathia wants, the Yankees no longer expect or need Sabathia to be a playoff pitcher.
They've built a promising staff of fine young fireballers with at least two ace-caliber arms and possibly more.
What they do expect and need from him is to stop being a dumpster fire and go deep enough into games to avoid burning up the bullpen every time he's handed the ball.
In other words, a solid back-end rotation inning-eater. And that's going to take reps. Lots of them. Enough so that he knows how not to leave anything up and over the center of the plate.
It won't be hard to tell when he figures it out because the ball will stop leaving the park and leaving dents in the outfield padding as it has been when he's thrown it the last two seasons and in several abbreviated outings this spring.
With an 11.57 ERA, time is running out and Yankee Universe is hoping it will click sooner than later because, with three years and $73 million remaining on his deal, they can't send him down, they can't trade him, they can't release him, and they can't bench him.
There are only two ways they can deal with a bad case of CC if he doesn't come around: Conjure up a phantom pain or strain attributed to one of his recent surgeries and park him on the disabled list, or punt him to the bullpen to work out his issues.
Right now, he's one of the most expensive non-aces in the history of MLB. But that's ok because that's the price the Yankees sometimes pay to lock up one of the great players of an era for the long haul.
He's brought a lot of wins, good will, and value to the Yankees over his career, and his work ethic is unquestioned. The fans are squarely on his side.
But he's struggled to adjust his game as his giant body and borderline Hall of Fame skills have declined.
There are great hopes that with his pain relieved and his lost body weight restored this year that he can regain his former equilibrium and find his balance point and comfort zone at a lower velocity.
He's spent time taking instruction from Andy Pettitte, the Yankees' beloved ageless wonder who in 18 years in the majors never had a losing season in no small part due to extraordinary command and control of a sinking two-seam fastball that he could throw inside to batters on either side of the plate.
As he struggles to re-learn how to pitch without his old velocity, he must also unlearn how he pitched with pain for the last two years.
Following a 2.2-inning outing against the Mets last week in which he gave up three home runs, he pronounced himself encouraged, more so by the lack of discomfort he felt than by his results.
“I said to (pitching coach) Larry (Rothschild) that I felt a lot better than I did last spring,’’ he said.
A perfectly valid talking point for someone who began last season coming off elbow surgery that supposedly cleaned out the painful cause of his prior disappointing season; only to have it cut short by a painful knee requiring yet another date with the surgeon's knife.
But he continued.
“I would rather get my a** kicked like I did today than give up no runs and felt like I did last year.’’
From a fan standpoint, that's probably not the order of priorities you want to hear.
One could chalk it up to the sheer exuberance of relief from extended pain if not for Rothschild's less-than-exuberant rejoinder.
After some grasping for vague signs of progress, he abruptly ended his post-game analysis with: "If he is encouraged, I am encouraged. I think he will get on a run and pitch the way we have seen him pitch.’’
Having not seen CC pitch well, or at all, in quite some time, such a pronouncement is likely unsettling for some Yankee fans.
But assuming the best case scenario, "the way we have seen him pitch" means 20 to 25 starts of six-inning, three-run ball, that would, at the very least, make baseball's most expensive inning-eater one of its most productive.
And that would go a long way toward helping the Yankees' pitching staff to potentially becoming one of the American League's most lethal units this season.
A hungry CC gobbling up innings instead of bullpen arms would be a major step on the path to an AL East title and the Yankees' first playoff appearance in three seasons.
And then he may get the ball for that playoff game he wants so much.
October is a long way off, though, and he must first learn to command all his pitches. And Opening Day is almost upon him.
And for the first time since he christened the new Yankee Stadium with its very first pitch six years ago, it will come and go without him.