CC Sabathia


Carsten Charles Sabathia Jr. is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, and New York Yankees. Sabathia batted and threw left-handed.
Sabathia made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians in 2001 and placed second in the American League Rookie of the Year Award voting, behind the year's AL Most Valuable Player, Ichiro Suzuki. Sabathia played the first seven and a half seasons of his career with the Indians, with whom he won the 2007 Cy Young Award. He led the Indians to the 2007 AL Central Division title and their first postseason berth since his rookie year. Following a trade, Sabathia played the second half of the 2008 season with the Milwaukee Brewers, helping them make the playoffs for the first time in 26 years.
In the 2008 offseason, Sabathia signed a seven-year, $161 million contract with the New York Yankees; at the time, it was the largest contract ever signed by a pitcher. With the Yankees, Sabathia led all of MLB in wins in both 2009 and 2010 and won a World Series championship in 2009. He was also voted the 2009 AL Championship Series Most Valuable Player. After mid-career struggles attributed to lost fastball velocity, chronic knee injuries, and alcoholism, Sabathia again found success in the late 2010s after reinventing himself as a control pitcher before retiring after the 2019 season.
During his career, Sabathia was named an All-Star six times and won the Warren Spahn Award three times in a row. In August 2017, Sabathia became the all-time AL leader in strikeouts by a left-handed pitcher. On April 30, 2019, he became the seventeenth pitcher in MLB history to reach 3,000 strikeouts. When he retired following the end of the 2019 season, he led all active Major League players in career wins, career innings pitched, and career strikeouts. With 251 career victories, Sabathia is tied with Bob Gibson for the second-most wins by a Black pitcher in major league history ; he was the first pitcher to debut in the 21st century and post at least 250 career wins in regular-season play. In, Sabathia was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Early life

Sabathia was born in Vallejo, California and attended Vallejo High School, where he excelled in baseball, basketball, and football. As a teenager, Sabathia played summer baseball in the Major League Baseball youth program, Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities. In baseball, he compiled a win–loss record of 6–0 with an 0.77 earned run average and 82 strikeouts in innings pitched during his senior season. He was the top high school prospect in Northern California according to Baseball America. In football, he was an all-conference tight end. He received scholarship offers to play college football, including one from the University of California, Los Angeles; he signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and to play baseball and football for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. Sabathia graduated from Vallejo High School in 1998 and went directly from high school to minor league baseball.

Professional career

Draft and minors

The Cleveland Indians selected Sabathia in the first round, with the 20th overall selection, of the 1998 MLB draft. He signed for a $1.3 million signing bonus and pitched in the Indians' minor league system for three seasons.
In 2000, Sabathia was selected for the 28-man United States Olympic Team roster. He appeared in one pre-Olympic tournament game in Sydney, Australia, but was not on the official 24-man, Gold Medal-winning roster because he was called up by the Cleveland Indians. He was named the Indians' 2000 Minor League Player of the Year.

Cleveland Indians (2001–2008)

In 2001, at age 20, Sabathia began his rookie season as the youngest player in the Major Leagues. He made his major league debut on April 8, 2001 against the Baltimore Orioles, allowing three earned runs on three hits while walking two and striking out three in innings. Sabathia would take a no-decision in Cleveland's 4–3 win. He ended the season with a 17–5 record and a 4.39 ERA in 33 starts, finishing second in the AL voting for Rookie of the Year behind future Yankees teammate Ichiro Suzuki. Sabathia also made his first postseason appearance in 2001, pitching Game 3 of the 2001 American League Division Series against the Seattle Mariners. He earned the win, pitching six innings, allowing two earned runs and striking out five in a 17–2 rout. At 21 years, 85 days of age, Sabathia became the second-youngest pitcher to win a Division Series game, after Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. The Indians went on to lose the series to the Mariners in five games.
On February 23, 2002, Sabathia signed a four-year, $9.5 million contract with the Indians that contained a club option for 2006. For the 2002 season, he finished 13–11 with a 4.37 ERA in 33 starts. Sabathia ranked tenth in the AL in strikeouts, with 149 in 210 innings. In 2003, Sabathia was 13–9 in 30 starts, and had the tenth-best ERA in the AL. He was also named to the American League All-Star team for the first time. Sabathia made his second All-Star selection in a row as he finished the 2004 season by going 11–10 with a 4.12 ERA in 30 starts, striking out 139 batters in 188 innings.
The Indians picked up Sabathia's $7 million club option for 2006 on April 27, 2005, and he subsequently signed a two-year, $17.75 million deal. In 2005, Sabathia posted a 15–10 record with a 4.03 ERA in 31 starts. He was fourth in the AL in strikeouts/9 IP, seventh in strikeouts and eighth in wins. He threw the fastest fastball in the AL in 2005, averaging 94.7 miles per hour.
In 2006, Sabathia made 28 starts, going 12–11 with a 3.22 ERA. led the major leagues with six complete games. He also led the AL in shutouts and was third in ERA and eighth in strikeouts.
Sabathia "burst onto the national scene" in 2007, "when he won the AL Cy Young after recording a 19–7 record, a 3.21 ERA, a 1.14 WHIP, 209 strikeouts, and a major league-leading 241 innings pitched and 5.56 strikeout-to-walk ratio". He collected his 1,000th career strikeout on May 21, 2007, fanning the player who beat him out for Rookie of the Year honors: Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners. He was also named to the American League All-Star team for the third time. On September 28, he became the youngest pitcher to record 100 career wins since Greg Maddux in 1993. On October 23, Sabathia won the Players Choice Award for Outstanding AL Pitcher. His pitching performance led Cleveland to its first American League Central Division Championship since 2001, his rookie season. For his performance, he won the 2007 American League Cy Young Award, joining Gaylord Perry as one of only two Cleveland Indians pitchers to ever win it. Sabathia also won the Warren Spahn Award given to the best left-handed pitcher in the Majors. Despite his strong regular season, Sabathia did not perform well against the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. In two starts, he went 0–2 with a 10.45 ERA.
Sabathia began the 2008 season 6–8 with a 3.83 ERA in 18 starts. With the Indians out of playoff contention, and with Sabathia an impending free agent, the Indians traded him.
On July 30, 2008, Sabathia took out a large $12,870 ad in the sports section of Cleveland's daily newspaper, The Plain Dealer. The ad, signed by Sabathia, his wife Amber, and his family read:
Sabathia finished his tenure with the Indians with 106 wins against 71 losses in 237 starts, a 3.83 ERA and 1.265 WHIP, and 1,265 strikeouts in innings.

Milwaukee Brewers (2008)

On July 7, 2008, Cleveland traded Sabathia to the Milwaukee Brewers for Matt LaPorta, Zach Jackson, Rob Bryson, and a player to be named later. In October, future All-Star Michael Brantley was added as the final piece of the trade; unusually, under the trade provisions the Indians were able to select the player themselves because the Brewers went on to make the playoffs. Sabathia recalled in Till The End, his 2021 memoir, that an unexpected positive of the trade was being put on a roster with multiple other Black athletes. "To be Black in America is to constantly be on guard... With the Brewers, for the first time in my baseball life, I could be more at ease." During his first Brewers press conference, Sabathia told the assembled members of the media that he would prefer his name to be spelled "CC" rather than "C. C."
On September 28, 2008, Sabathia pitched a complete-game four-hitter against the Cubs in the final game of the regular season; the Brewers won, 3–1, and clinching the wild card when the New York Mets lost later that evening. The team's 2008 postseason appearance was its first since 1982. Sabathia started Game 2 of the 2008 NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies; it was his fourth consecutive start in which he pitched on three days' rest. Sabathia surrendered five runs in 3 innings, walking pitcher Brett Myers and giving up a grand slam to Shane Victorino. The Phillies would go on to win the World Series. Teammate Mike Cameron later opined that Sabathia had taken on so much work that season that he "had nothing left" for the playoff game.
For the season, Sabathia was 17–10 overall with a 2.70 ERA in 35 starts and struck out 251 batters in a major-league leading 253 innings, posting 10 complete games. Sabathia was sixth in the voting for the 2008 NL MVP award. Sabathia was particularly dominant during his tenure with Milwaukee, going 11–2 across 17 starts with a 1.65 ERA and a 1.003 WHIP, striking out 128 batters against just 25 walks in innings, and throwing seven complete games. Despite only spending half the season in the National League, he finished fifth in the NL Cy Young Award voting and sixth in the NL MVP vote. He was also awarded the Warren Spahn Award for the second year in a row. A 2025 ESPN retrospective cited Sabathia's performance and its impact on the Brewers' franchise in ranking him the best trade deadline acquisition of all time.