C.J. Wilson’s girlfriend resides in New York, but the Rangers’ lefty free agent-to-be says she isn’t trying to get him to come to the Big Apple.
“She works a lot, she travels a lot, so she doesn’t necessarily live in one place either,” Wilson said yesterday. “So we’re going to be in a long-distance relationship no matter where I am.”
Wilson, who fired eight innings of two-run ball with 10 strikeouts in the Rangers’ 3-2, 12-inning loss to the Yankees, will be one of this winter’s most coveted free agent starters (outside CC Sabathia if he opts out and leaves The Bronx). And it certainly would make sense for the Yankees to pursue him.
Though Wilson admitted he’s not fond of the mound at Yankee Stadium, the left-hander does seem to have his priorities in order.
“Winning,” Wilson said when asked what’s important to him for the future. “The better the team is behind me. For instance, in Texas here, obviously we have great offense. You have Elvis [Andrus] and Adrian [Beltre] on the left side of the infield. You have [Ian] Kinsler at the right side of the infield. That’s always great. For me, that’s what gives me the best chance to win.
“And really when you’re 40 or 50 years old, you’re going to look back on your career and say, ‘This is why I did it and I’m cool with it.’ When I was 8 years old, I wanted to win the World Series. When I was 12 years old, I wanted to win the World Series. It’s just always going to be that. It’s always going to be the deciding factor, one way or the other.”
As for Yankee Stadium, Wilson said the mound has “too much clay and not enough dirt. It’s clay and then silt. And I don’t really like that.”
Wilson, a California native who will turn 31 this winter, went 15-8 with a 3.35 ERA in his first full season as a starter last year, and this year he’s 7-3 with a 3.03 ERA.
Mark Teixeira called him “one of the best starters in the American League right now.”
Wilson said he was able to watch how focused former teammate Cliff Lee was every day on his pitching responsibilities while with the Rangers last season. He also said that “because there’s a million factors [that go into the decision], they all kind of cancel each other out.
“So, for me, the biggest thing is just the better I pitch, the happier everyone’s going to be around me, the happier everybody will be with me, on every regard,” Wilson said. “My family’s always going to have an opinion, but I don’t really care what they think. It’s my career. And my focus is a ton of innings, groundouts and strikeouts, wins. That’s what I’m really worried about.”