The Yankees will place left-hander CC Sabathia on the disabled list due to a right knee injury, and manager Joe Girardi told reporters, including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (Twitter link) that “it’s a possibility” that Sabathia will not pitch again in 2015. As a result of the injury, the Yankees have re-signed Chris Capuano, who had briefly elected free agency, according to a team announcement.
The 35-year-old Sabathia exited yesterday’s contest due to knee pain after just 2 2/3 innings. If his season is indeed finished, he will end the year with a 5.27 ERA with 7.4 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 in 138 1/3 innings. It would also mark the second straight year in which a right knee injury ended Sabathia’s season early. He has one more guaranteed season remaining on his contract and will earn $25MM in 2016, but his 2017 vesting option for the same amount will become guaranteed if Sabathia’s left shoulder remains healthy in 2016. The only ways for the option not to vest are if Sabathia ends the season on the DL due to a shoulder injury, if he spends 45 or more days on the DL due to a shoulder injury or if he makes six or more relief appearances due to a shoulder injury.
For the Yankees, it further depletes the team’s rotation depth, although as Jack Curry of the YES Network noted earlier today (on Twitter) that Michael Pineda threw a bullpen session today and is slated to return to the rotation on Wednesday vs. Houston. Pineda, then, would join Masahiro Tanaka, Ivan Nova, Nathan Eovaldi and Luis Severino in the rotation, with Capuano (and perhaps eventually Bryan Mitchell) serving as depth options.
Capuano, who turned 37 earlier this week, has pitched 33 innings for the Yankees in 2015 but struggled to a 6.55 ERA. He’s averaged 8.5 K/9 but also yielded 4.4 BB/9, hit three batters and served up five homers. Capuano has, somewhat incredibly, been designated for assignment and outrighted three times in the past month. As the Yankees announced, he technically rejected his most recent outright in order to sign a new Major League contract and expedite his return to the big league roster.
This may sound kind of rude, but this is probably a very good thing for the Yankees. Hes been really bad for 3 seasons now. 10.7 H/9 and 1.7 HR/9 this season. I’d imagine they go and get a SP off waivers.
Someone like an Aaron Harang, who has struggled, but bounced back in his last start could be had for nearly nothing.
Iwakuma is another interesting piece. He’d cost a little bit more, and who knows if he’d make it past the Angels, Rangers, Orioles and Twins on waivers.
Tanaka/Nova/Eovaldi/Severino with Pineda coming back isn’t terrible, but its one of those things where all of them have some type of question mark.
Yankees fan here and i agree. Is a blessing in disguise. That said… Why sign Capuano again??? 0-4 with a 6.55 ERA… I get a headache everytime i see him warming up.
This just doesn’t worry me that much. Sabathia is the 6th best starter the Yankees have but unlike Mitchell and Capuano (one of them takes that roll) CC had to pitch. With him out, they tread thin ice, but rosters expand next week and they only need four starters for the postseason. If Pineda comes back Wednesday and performs well, the Yankees have Severino, Nova, Tanaka, Pineda and Eovaldi all throwing the ball well down the stretch. Plus they have an off day this Thursday, so they can pretty much pitch on an extra day’s rest for the rest of the year if they wanted.
Oh no… they lost their replacement-level pitcher
He was still giving them innings in which the Yankees didn’t have to overuse their taxed bullpen.
He was giving them 5.75 innings per start, that’s not really giving them innings. Pretty much any replacement pitcher can do that, maybe not Capuano though.
He was actually doing the opposite of that. By pitching every 5th or 6th day he was taxing the bullpen since he barely throws more than six innings on a good day.
Dang that Sabathia.. Pitched a gem last week and now he is done for the season.. I wish he would just retire and let the Yankees spend that money elsewhere.. Then again the loss of his salary plus Drew’s/Capuano’s might just be enough to get them under the luxury tax.. If they make it to the post season Hal will probably handcuff the spending.. I would rather see a player get the money even if it is a broken down Sabathia, than a deep pocketed owner putting it into his account..
Not sure how any one can say that the Yankee owners put money in there pocket over winning lineups. They have spent more money on payroll then any other organization in MLB. You need to wonder what you said about teams like the Marlins.
Apparently you have not seen/heard about the many times Hal has said that he wants to get under the luxury tax and how he doesn’t feel that you need to spend $200m to build a championship club.. I know as a lifelong Yankee fan from New York that I am very spoiled with the Yankees free spending of the past but those days are over.. No other team in baseball makes as much money as the Yankees (they still have $2000 seats) yet they have been outspent by the Dodgers this year by almost $80 million.. The one thing the Yankees always had was their ability to outspend everybody and therefor they usually got their man.. If you doubt what I am saying here just simply look at the Moncada signing.. They were outspent by $6 million by the Red Sox.. I am sure George was spinning in his grave for quite awhile after that.. 5 years ago the Red Sox outbidding the Yankees would have been unthinkable!! Last year George would have made sure that Lester was signed just to stick it to them.. The days of the Yankees free spending ways are coming to a close.. Look at how many teams have gotten these big tv deals and are now starting to get close to the luxury tax.. In 4-5 years the Yankees will probably only be around 4th or 5th in spending unless attendance falls.. Hal is more of a businessman than a die hard all in every year owner like George was..
And just a couple of years ago, I had CC as a slam-dunk to be the next 250-win, 3,000 strikeout guy.
He’s gotta lay off the Captain Crunch.
sensitive bunch here I see.
Agreed.. Had he stayed healthy he probably would have already passed 250 wins and would be pushing for 300 in a couple of years.. What I find truly amazing about CC is the fact that he has almost 3000 innings on his arm without ever having any serious elbow/shoulder trouble.. His mechanics should be taught to younger power pitchers.. I know he has had these injury plagued years but I still hold him in very high regard because those first few years with the Yankees you knew that after the 2nd inning he would shut down almost every lineup and the Yankees knew exactly how many runs they would need to win..
New in time for Christmas at Toys R Us in New York… the Capuano Yo-Yo.
I don’t get why Capuano is their go to guy this season. When you are in such a tight race you need to fortify that 5th spot. If I were Cashman, my target is one of Pittsburgh’s extra guys like Liz or Worley. Both are good enough, young back end guys who are sitting in AAA and could really fill that hole. While Im not certain on Lizs service Time, Vanimal is arbitration eligible for two more seasons and would really give them flexibility to trade from their glut of young starters and fortify their middle infield with Drew on his way out and next to nothing on the market.
Capuano is their #6 guy.. He will probably just be more of a longman/depth piece.. I am sure heading into September if another starter goes down they will either move Warren back to the rotation or give Mitchell a shot.. Another than a rare last resort spot start Capuano’s starting days are over in New York..
Mitchell will be the 6th man in the rotation. He throws a bullpen session and can come back soon after.
Capuano, in reality, will be relevant for a week and then callups will take over his role.
“…I would rather see a player get the money even if it is a broken down Sabathia, than a deep pocketed owner putting it into his account…”
Historically – the NYY have always put profits back into their players….alot of the ‘other clubs’ owners keep profits in their own backpockets – thus we always get the ‘whiney’ non-NYY fans complaining about the Yankee payroll…when their owners happily take NYY luxury tax money (and put it in their own pockets, and don’t put it where their fans can appreciate it !)
Complain about YOUR ownership’s business model … NOT the Yankees.
Umm, Bob.. I am a lifelong Yankee fan from New York.. The business model that you have stated is the old Yankee way or have you not been paying attention to what Hal has been saying and doing the last couple of years.. Read my first explanation above..
Smart from Capuano to finally elect free agency, the guy could’ve gotten his entire MLB salary paid in full a month ago without having to worry about the Yankees or anyone else giving him a chance to pitch again this year.
Maybe he or his agent read the comment I wrote on here the last time he was DFA’d, yeah probably not lol.
CC’s worries go beyond this year with how bad his condition is at this point, his treatment options aren’t plentiful and cortisone isn’t even helping anymore, arthroscopic surgery would be a moot decision and he’s a terrible candidate for microfracture surgery. His loss doesn’t hurt the rotation’s current state beyond depth, they have Mitchell as a decent enough fallback option if it comes to that (who I would think has a better shot of taking a spot than Capuano), but it is a possible career threatening thing going on with CC. Even if he hasn’t been who he used to be, not even close, it’s still sad to watch the decline of the guy.
In the end, Capuano always wins.
In other news Sabathia not done for the season and Capuano has again been DFA’d