The Sabathia Situation

The Indians are in a bit of a pickle with regards to C.C. Sabathia, who has terminated negotiations for a contract extension until the end of the season. Common sense would indicate that Sabathia will be leaving at the end of the year, either for the West Coast or for one of the two big cities on the East Coast. He is likely to sign a contract that will rival the one that Johan Santana signed, one which is not able to be supported by the Indians financial situation.

That is not the dilemma. The dilemma is this: how do the Indians treat Sabathia this season? The treatment should be viewed from two perspectives. First, how do the Indians best use Sabathia this season with the perspective that he will be of no further use to the organization upon the conclusion of the season? Second, do the Indians have an ethical duty to handle Sabathia responsibly?

The answer to the first question is not as easy as it might otherwise appear. Certainly the Indians would want to throw Sabathia out there as often as possible. However, last (regular) season Sabathia tossed 241 innings, 31 more than he had previously, and almost 50 more than the year before. Depending on your source, Sabathia threw somewhere between 3570 and 3581 pitches, about 200 more than in any prior season, and over 600 more than 2006. He was obviously tremendously effective in the regular season, winning the Cy Young, but was horrid in the postseason.

Was he horrible in the postseason simply due to a poorly timed slump, or was he horrible in the postseason because he was fatigued? If the latter, was it because he reached the ceiling of his workload, or was it because he had not worked quite so much before, but with a bit more experience he would be able to exceed even that workload somewhat?

These are questions that have to be answered before determining just how often and how long Sabathia pitches. It will be a tight race this season, so the Indians will not be in a position to save Sabathia for postseaosn starts - they'll need to get everything they can out of him during the entirety of the season, from March 31st to hopefully sometime late in October.

Which brings me to the second part of the dilemma: does the Indians organization have an ethical responsibility to Sabathia to handle him in a manner that will not serve to hurt his chances of injury? Similarly, the answer to this question seems simple but is not particularly so. First, it serves the Indians no good if Sabathia gets hurt during the season. Secondly, while the Machiavellian side of me feels that if abusing Sabathia this season is what it takes to win a title, then so be it, there is a part of me that recognizes that this is just a really awful way to go about it. I often get up in arms about high school and college coaches that really seem unconcerned with their pitcher's future, and have him out there for 130 or more pitches, then bring him in to close a game out two days later. While Sabathia is a grown man who is more likely to handle this, it's still disquieting to imagine.

I think this organization has shown itself to be an upstanding one, which prides itself on such unquantifiable qualities such as character. I think Shapiro and Wedge have shown that they will err on the side of caution in such circumstances. Should they? I don't know. Sabathia has shown himself capable of handing a great deal of stress to his arm.

I think the Indians need to enter this season feeling that Sabathia is gone. While I don't think that Eric Wedge should go all Billy Martin on Sabathia, I think the team owes the fans the responsibility that they will get all that they can out of him in the hopes of winning a title. If this means increasing his workload further, so be it. I don't think having Sabathia pitch 260 innings this season is unreasonable from the club's perspective. And if we've made it to the postseason, then we can worry if we've left anything in his tank.