HOUSTON — I still believe in CC Sabathia to this extent — he will figure out a way to throw 200 innings and win double-digit games.
Those two horror-show innings on Opening Night did not dissuade me of that — not yet anyway. He is athletic, competitive, tenacious, accountable and left-handed — a cocktail that should counter some of the defanged fastball and spotty location.
We already have evidence to suggest this and it is called 2013 when he was not fully over his left elbow surgery and probably lost too much weight too quickly and still produced his seventh straight season of 200-plus innings and had 11 wins or more with a winning record for the 14th straight year.
It was not pretty and that could be the case again this season — though it should be noted that even in his best years Sabathia tended to be at his worst in Game 1s.
At this point, though — regardless of his ace salary — Sabathia must be viewed as, at best, a mid-rotation bulldog. Anything better than that would be a fringe benefit. Anything worse and it will be more than an Opening Night mayday of Houston, we have a problem.
No matter the outcome — and we are in a stay-tuned mode — Sabathia’s diminishment only escalates the significance of Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and Ivan Nova. And not just this year.
The Yankees knew when they gave Sabathia a seven-year contract after the 2008 season and — if not then — certainly when they circumvented his opt out by extending him following the 2011 campaign that he would never make the full run as a No. 1 starter. The history of baseball weighed heavily against it and so did Sabathia’s waistline and workload.
The recognition was one of the main motivators in turning Jesus Montero into Pineda and championing those Killer Bs — Manuel Banuelos, Dellin Betances and Andrew Brackman. The hope was that by the time Sabathia’s descent began, younger arms would be making their ascent.
It didn’t happen, not in 2013 anyway. Sabathia led the majors in earned runs, was creamed for 28 homers and had the third-worst second-half ERA (6.08) for anyone throwing at least 60 innings. But the storyline for last year’s Yankees was that no suitable replacements ever arrived for the infirmed and the inadequate, and the Yankees missed the playoffs for just the second time since 1994.
Brackman was gone, Betances was turned into a full-time reliever, Baneulos was recovering from elbow surgery and Pineda was still working back from shoulder surgery. The positive was Nova pitched to a 2.78 ERA in the second half to raise hope he finally had blended maturity, consistency and high-end stuff.
One game into the 2014 campaign the Yankees are not going to abandon Sabathia. But they hope that level of top-of-the-rotation reinforcements is now on the premises. That last year was the beginning of the new new for Nova. That their $175 million outlay for Tanaka is going to be rewarded instantly. That Pineda is, at last, ready to help with the cause. Heck, even Banuelos, healthy again. He will begin the year at High-A Tampa and have innings restrictions, but 2014 is an outside possibility for The Show and 2015 definitely is in play.
For the Yankees, this has to have not only short-term urgency, but long-term implications. Hiroki Kuroda, Wednesday night’s starter, turned 39 in February. He is the third-oldest starter in the majors behind only the Mets’ Bartolo Colon (41 in May) and Blue Jays knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (40 in October). He has contemplated retirement after each of the past two seasons before agreeing to one-year deals to return to the Yankees. That is an addiction the Yankees would like to stop, especially since the righty showed such decline late last season, likely because of his own heavy workload.
Sabathia and Kuroda went 1-2 in this rotation as much out of seniority and respect as anything else. Stuff wise, they are 4-5 — with Sabathia perhaps being fifth now. Ideally, Sabathia and Kuroda will find their historic form. But even if that were to happen, the Yanks sure could use for Nova, Tanaka and Pineda — all 27 or younger — to work their way to the top of this rotation.
For this year. And for the years to come.