CC Sabathia, Lone Zombie on the Rejuvenated Yankees

The New York Yankees' 2015 season was always going to be defined by old players on massive contracts. Alex Rodriguez, fresh off his yearlong suspension for PEDs and defiling our national pastime, fit right in among a roster of decrepit has-beens, though he was the one everyone was most concerned (or upset) about.

As it turns out, the only people who needed to be concerned were Yankee opponents and people who hate fun. The Summer of A-Rod has been an absolute tour de force, a one-man reign of vengeance against "the haterz" luxurious enough for Donald Trump. Rodriguez kicked off his fifth decade on this planet last week with a dinger in Texas against his former team, and he currently has the fifth-best OPS in the American League. FOX is rumored to be in negotiations to include him in their postseason coverage; even Larry King is enjoying the show.

The centaur is resplendent once again. Yet for all the giddy thrill of his assault on obnoxious baseball decorum, A-Rod isn't even the most valuable highly paid old mercenary on his team. That honor belongs to Mark Teixeira, who earned $45 million over the past two seasons and produced a little less than one win-above-replacement level over that time, but now ranks fourth on the AL's OPS ledger. New York's hitters are old as hell, and they are good: eight of their nine regulars are over 30, and seven of those codgers are hitting above league average. The Yankees are in first place in the American League East despite basically every shred of conventional baseball wisdom.

If New York is carrying a geriatric albatross at the moment, it's in the rotation: CC Sabathia, their only starter over the age of 30. The venerable hoss carries an unsightly 4-8 record in 2015, and his 5.38 ERA ranks 88th out of 92 qualified MLB starters. He is essentially useless against all but the most lefty-dominant lineups; right-handed batters are hitting an absurd .325/.366/.551 against him. Remember how Teixeira and Rodriguez rank fourth and fifth in the league in OPS? CC's numbers against righties run neck and neck with A-Rod's:

• Teixeira: .955 OPS
• Right-handed hitters vs. Sabathia: .927 OPS
• Rodriguez: .927 OPS

Despite his struggles, Sabathia won a reprieve when fellow starter Michael Pineda went on the DL, but it might not be a long one. Right now, the Yankees organization has two pitchers who would be an upgrade over Sabathia. Top prospect Luis Severino, who has been demolishing AAA, will start in Pineda's place on Wednesday. And they still have Adam Warren, who's no Severino but did put up a 3.59 ERA in 14 starts. The former UNC standout was sent back to the bullpen once Ivan Nova returned from Tommy John surgery. Here is why and how that happened:

GSIP (as starter)ERA (as starter)FIP (overall)bWAR (overall)CC Sabathia19117.0

5.54

4.83

-0.1

Adam Warren

82.2

3.59

3.81

1.9

Makes sense, right? Also one of those guys is being paid $23 million this year.

In a strange way, the thinking behind throwing Sabathia out there to get clobbered every fifth day is the same thinking that made A-Rod and Teixeira's renaissance possible. Like Sabathia, the two sluggers gave the team virtually nothing over the past two seasons. The Yankees would have already dumped all three if they weren't attached to massive guaranteed deals.

A-Rod was the obvious target—you couldn't toss a bucket of virtual Skittles in any direction on the Internet last winter without bouncing some off a "Yankees need to cut this loser" thinkpiece. Should we even credit the organization for holding onto him? Their main motivation seems to have been the fear he would somehow come back from his yearlong suspension, catch on with another team, and make the Yankees look like fools.

The organization is still fighting Rodriguez tooth and nail over money, like the $6 million bonus he earned for passing Willie Mays on the all-time home run list. They tossed out bullshit, unprovable terms like "not marketable" before finally settling on a large charitable donation in place of the clause they negotiated.

That's fine, more or less. It's petty and hypocritical, but pro sports owners are both of those things as a matter of course. As far as owners are concerned, not paying bonus money to Alex Rodriguez is barely a misdemeanor. That A-Rod's played well enough to earn those bonuses is good for the Yankees, but not the result of some masterstroke. The Yankees held onto Rodriguez, paid him only what they've been legally forced to pay him, and have tried to extract some on-field value from the rest. This is what any owner would do.

With Sabathia, though, the Yankees have reached the point where they should be less worried about extracting value and more worried about not fucking up their title chances. New York still has a fairly comfortable lead over Toronto and Baltimore, but both teams have legit right-handed pop, and New York will play them 19 more times this season—six against Baltimore, and 13 against the suddenly supercharged Toronto. Their lead isn't insurmountable, and a few Sabathia meltdowns could make it even less so. Sabathia can still get lefties out, which is good. If he were to do that in the bullpen, both he and the Yankees would be even better.

If the Yankees want to give Sabathia another shot at the rotation next season, they should. He'll get paid $25 million either way next year, and he's still CC Sabathia. In this season of miraculous resurrections, however, it would be a shame for the Yankees to let their roster's last remaining big-name zombie upend a season that otherwise has been a troll job for the ages.