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Sabathia cements legacy as first-ballot Hall of Famer

Posted on January 27, 2025 - 3:43 am by

CC Sabathia remembers being awed by his first visit to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., saying he still gets goosebumps when he thinks about those hours wandering through the plaque gallery several years ago.

“That was the first time I really, really thought about it,” Sabathia said. “I was like, ‘Damn, I really want to be in the Hall of Fame.’ I never thought about being in the Hall of Fame when I was playing, but going up there, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, this is cool.’”

Sabathia’s next visit will come as an inductee. One of the fiercest workhorses of his generation, Sabathia was a six-time All-Star, Cy Young Award winner and World Series champion who received a new title on Tuesday: first-ballot Hall of Famer. Sabathia appeared on 86.8% of the ballots, easily surpassing the 75% threshold necessary for election.

Over a 19-year career with the Cleveland Indians (2001-08), Milwaukee Brewers (2008) and New York Yankees (2009-19), Sabathia established a reputation for consistency, highlighted by 251 victories and 3,093 strikeouts. Sabathia hurled 3,577 1/3 innings across 561 Major League contests, surpassing the 200-inning threshold eight times.

“It means a lot to be in the Hall of Fame, period,” Sabathia said. “But first-ballot, I know what that means as a baseball player. It’s very special.”

One of just 15 pitchers in Major League history to notch at least 250 wins and 3,000 strikeouts, Sabathia is only the third left-hander to accomplish the feat, along with Hall of Famers Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson.

Sabathia said Tuesday he plans to enter the Hall with a Yankees logo on his plaque, calling the Bronx his “home.”

“Throughout his time in pinstripes, he embodied the best of what it means to be a Yankee,” said Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner. “I offer my wholehearted congratulations to CC and his family on his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.”

Said former captain Derek Jeter: “During my career with the Yankees, I had the honor of playing with so many talented players. No player exemplified a Hall-of-Fame player and person more than CC Sabathia. His career on the field speaks for itself, but it’s his career as a teammate that stands out the most. I look forward to welcoming CC to Cooperstown.”

Drafted by Cleveland in the first round of the 1998 MLB Draft as a high schooler from Vallejo, Calif., Sabathia set the tone for his durability early, firing 180 1/3 innings as a 20-year-old rookie in 2001 (he finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting to the Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki, now his teammate in the Hall of Fame Class of 2025).

Sabathia made his first two All-Star teams in 2003 and ’04. He was the American League’s Cy Young Award winner in ’07, when he posted a 19-7 record and a 3.21 ERA in 34 starts. That year, Sabathia paced the Majors with 241 innings, 975 batters faced and a 5.65 strikeout-to-walk ratio (209 to 37), breezily besting Josh Beckett of the Red Sox as the circuit’s top hurler.

“I don’t think I’d be sitting here today if I wasn’t drafted by the Cleveland organization,” Sabathia said.

The Brewers needed pitching help as they battled for a playoff berth near the midway point of the 2008 campaign, and there was no better arm available than Sabathia, who became the centerpiece of a five-player July trade. Sabathia said “it was devastating getting traded from Cleveland, because I thought I would be there forever.” His new team got what they hoped for — and plenty more.

With Milwaukee, Sabathia registered a National League-leading seven complete games in 17 starts, posting a 1.65 ERA across 130 2/3 innings, including a complete game in the regular-season finale to clinch a playoff berth. Sabathia took the ball on short rest in his final three starts over the objections of his representatives, who feared injury so close to a free agency payday.

“Milwaukee left a huge impression on me,” Sabathia said. “Me and Prince [Fielder] are friends for life. Me and Billy Hall are friends for life. Me and David Riske were best friends before I got traded. The time I spent in Milwaukee was very special to me.”

Sabathia made it through that gauntlet healthy, and when the Brewers’ season ended in the NLDS, his services became available to all 30 teams. Sabathia initially believed that free agency would take him back closer to his California roots, but the Yankees would not be denied, landing Sabathia with a record-setting seven-year, $161 million contract.

The Yankees were “broken” at the time, in the words of general manager Brian Cashman, who portrayed a clubhouse in disarray. There was still veteran presence from the last World Series teams, but they weren’t meshing with the newer additions. Sabathia’s assignment would be to lead the team on the field and unite the players in the clubhouse, a task he gamely took on by organizing team barbecues and group trips to NBA games.

“When you have a player of his stature displaying that type of selflessness, it tends to manifest itself inside every corner of the clubhouse,” Cashman said. “CC was a difference maker for this organization in a multitude of ways.”

Sabathia headlined a blockbuster offseason for the Yankees, who also added right-hander A.J. Burnett, first baseman Mark Teixeira and outfielder Nick Swisher that winter. The year ended with Sabathia riding a parade float through the Canyon of Heroes, delivering the franchise’s 27th World Series championship after pacing the Majors with 19 victories and earning recognition as the MVP of the club’s ALCS triumph over the Angels.

“That 2009 team was special, and he was a big reason why we were the last team standing,” said former catcher Jorge Posada. “CC earned this great honor. He had a remarkable career, and he was one of my favorite teammates I played with.”

Those Yankees appeared set for a long run of October success. Alas, 2009 would represent Sabathia’s only World Series experience. He continued to excel from 2010-12, making three consecutive All-Star teams, then experienced struggles and injury issues that included season-ending right knee surgery in July 2014.

Sabathia’s velocity diminished as he advanced into his mid-to-late 30s, prompting him to huddle with Andy Pettitte, who’d similarly needed late-career reinvention to lean on a cutter and prioritize control. The resurgent Sabathia pitched to a 14-5 record and a 3.69 ERA in 2017 for a Yankees club that finished one win shy of the World Series.

“The biggest separator for CC was his mentality. He was tenacious,” Pettitte said. “He had that bulldog approach to the point where he had a lack of care for his own well-being at times, and he wanted to take the ball every chance he could. He was a true warrior on the mound, and that type of make-up is very rare.”

Sabathia privately contemplated retirement after that ’17 season, but was nudged to continue pitching by an offseason phone call with MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds, who provided statistical data on how reaching 250 wins and 3,000 strikeouts would help his Hall case.

“I probably wouldn’t be sitting here today if Harold didn’t call me that offseason,” Sabathia said.

In an oft-cited example of Sabathia’s standing as a fiery competitor and loyal teammate, he was ejected from his final start of the 2018 season for hitting the Rays’ Jesús Sucre, responding after the Yanks’ Austin Romine was thrown behind earlier in the game. Sabathia was ejected six outs shy of earning a $500,000 bonus. He did not shy away from his intent, saying, “For me, it was more just about taking care of my guys.” (The Yankees quietly paid his bonus anyway.)

“He is a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer because of his exceptional body of work on the bump — but for me, his greater legacy is the type of teammate he was,” said manager Aaron Boone. “He always put team over self.”

Sabathia’s last appearance came in Game 4 of the 2019 ALCS against the Astros; having long expected that his troublesome right knee would force him from the mound, his left shoulder gave out instead, sending Sabathia to the dugout with tears in his eyes.

“It’s kind of fitting,” Sabathia would say. “I threw until I couldn’t anymore.”