CC Sabathia Was Two Innings Shy Of A $500k Bonus Last Night – But He Beaned A Batter Anyway
ByJoey Heldon September 27, 2018inArticles›Sports News
The New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 12-1 earlier today. Normally, that kind of score would make you pause for just a moment, if at all. Maybe you’d say, “huh, that game wasn’t very close” and go on about your day. For Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia , however, the game proved costly.
Sabathia very likely lost out on $500,000 thanks to what happened during the game.
Let’s start in the fifth inning: Sabathia hit the Rays’ Jake Bauers in the wrist. The following inning, Tampa Bay’s Andrew Kittredge threw a pitch that went behind Austin Romine’s head, who immediately asked Rays catcher Jesus Sucre if the pitch was on purpose.
Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
Whether it was or not, Sabathia wasn’t having any of it. In the bottom of the sixth, the pitcher hit Sucre in the leg with his first pitch of the inning. That earned Sabathia an ejection and led to a bunch of trash talk from each side.
As Sabathia exited, he had a few choice words for the Rays dugout. We assume the below insult is directed at Kittredge, and it’s pretty clear what Sabathia is saying.
thats for you, bitch. pic.twitter.com/XC258lBlnE — Jomboy (@Jomboy_) September 27, 2018
The reason all of this is a big deal is that Sabathia was just two innings away from hitting an incentive bonus in his contract. If he pitched 150 innings this season, he would have made an additional $500,000. With an 11-0 lead at the time, getting six additional outs seemed automatic. But Sabathia would rather stick up for a teammate than make half a million dollars, which is pretty cool.
Even more impressive: this could potentially be Sabathia’s last-ever pitch as a Yankee. Unless he gets some relief work this weekend or makes a start in the playoffs (the Yankees will be in the play-in game), his 10-year run in New York will likely come to end.
Sabathia remained loyal to his teammates until the very last pitch. What a way to go out.
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Is David Price Baseball’s Next $200 Million Man?
ByTravis Pulveron October 23, 2015inArticles›Sports News
Pitcher David Price is one of the many talented baseball players who have helped the Tampa Bay Rays go from being an MLB doormat to a contending team on a year by year basis. The Rays decided to send him to the Detroit Tigers in a trade during the 2014 season (where he signed a one-year $19.75 million deal) who then traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays during the 2015 season.
Price will be hitting the free agent market, and as one of the best pitchers in baseball will likely command a pretty hefty salary from serious contenders. With 18 wins in 32 starts, 225 strike outs over 220.1 innings, and an ERA of 2.45 (fourth best in the league) who would not want him on the roster?
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
However, there may be one problem teams will have when it comes to paying him the kind of salary he will command. His postseason record is terrible. He started Game One of the ALDS for the Blue Jays and ended up taking a loss dropping his career post season record to 1-6.
To be fair, he didn’t have a terrible game, but stayed in maybe a little too long. The five earned runs he was credited with all came in the seventh inning. He did pitch six innings of one hit ball before imploding in the seventh and giving up five hits and five earned runs.
When he was pulled he had only thrown 96 pitches so can Toronto’s manager be faulted for leaving him in? Some would say yes; some would say no. Considering his track record in the post season it is hard to say.
While his post season record may be lacking his regular season is enough to interest teams and command a high salary. Only five pitchers won more games than him (18). Only six pitched more than his 220.1 innings, and seven had more strikeouts than him (225). Yet his salary comes in as the 13 th highest in the league.
There are some that think he will command a $200 million deal; something that only two other pitchers have done, Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer . As good as he has pitched, Price is not worth $30 million a season like Kershaw and Scherzer. At 30 it is possible that someone will sign him to a seven-year deal like them, but it is more likely he’ll get something closer to Justin Verlander’s deal (which averages $27 million a season).
So his deal is more likely going to be around $185-190 million (which still isn’t bad).
Will his post season record cost him? Probably not. Teams will pay for a guy that will help them get to the post season first, and then hope that he overcomes his post season demons once they get there.
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