If the Yankees are going to prevent CC Sabathia from hitting the open market, they’d better do it quickly.
Sabathia has until midnight to opt out of the last four years of his seven-year contract with the Yankees.
The Yankees had hoped to strike a deal with Sabathia before the deadline to prevent him from becoming a free agent, but that hadn’t happened as of yesterday.
Sabathia is likely looking for a contract of at least six or perhaps seven years, since the Yankees offered Cliff Lee a similar deal a season ago before he spurned that offer to go back to Philadelphia for five years. The Yankees may not want to make that kind of commitment with the 31-year-old Sabathia, despite his importance to the staff.
Their 2012 starting rotation would be built around Sabathia if the Yankees are able to keep him around, but even with him, they may still want to bring back free agent Freddy Garcia, who won 12 games for them after signing with the team late last offseason. Bartolo Colon’s return seems less assured, since the 38-year-old right-hander wore down at the end of the season.
One free agent whose days with the Yankees appear to be over is Jorge Posada, who rebounded from a rough year to be one of the few Yankees to have a have a fairly productive postseason.
Still, with Russell Martin expected back behind the plate and the possibility of Jesus Montero — as well as Alex Rodriguez — at DH, there probably won’t be room for Posada.
Andruw Jones and Eric Chavez, both valuable bench players, are also free agents, as well as Luis Ayala, who was serviceable in the bullpen, unlike Damaso Marte and Sergio Mitre.
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The Yankees are likely to announce today they have agreed with general manager Brian Cashman on a new three-year contract.
Additional reporting by George A. King III.