TAMPA — An offseason of soul-searching led CC Sabathia to conclude that he made a mistake, at least from a baseball standpoint, by going on a crash diet a year ago, one he believes sapped him of strength and took some steam out of his fastball, resulting in the worst season of his career.
“I probably did it the wrong way going into a baseball season,” Sabathia said on Friday, as pitchers and catchers reported for spring training.
The Yankees can only hope it’s that simple. They’ve committed nearly $500 million this winter to free-agent signings in trying to vault their way back into the postseason, yet nothing would improve their chances more than Sabathia regaining something close to his old ace-like form.
It seems like a lot to ask, however, after he pitched to a 4.78 ERA, easily the highest of his career. A significant drop in fastball velocity suggests that, at age 33, he is showing the effects of throwing 2,775 innings in the big leagues, yet the extreme weight loss can’t be dismissed as a factor, especially hearing Sabathia explain the circumstances.
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Basically he admitted that he was frightened into losing the weight when a 45-year-old cousin died of heart disease in December of 2012. Within a matter of months Sabathia said he dropped some 35 pounds, going from 315 to 280.
“I decided I wanted to be around for my family, my kids,” he said.
That’s admirable, of course, in a real-life context. But Sabathia looks back now and thinks that, as it applied to pitching, it was too much too soon.
“I think (the issue) was just losing that much weight and trying to play a professional sport,” Sabathia said. “I was joking today with (trainer Steve Donahue).
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“I felt like ‘The Biggest Loser’ last year.
“I lost a lot of weight but I wasn’t physically ready to go out and play. I felt like I lost a bit of power and stamina. By the fourth or fifth inning, I was usually tired.
“So that’s something I worked on this winter. This winter was all about getting stronger, gaining strength and being able to go out and pitch.”
Rob Carr/ Getty Images
CC Sabathia in 2012.
The big lefthander says he actually has dropped another five pounds, to 275, his lowest playing weight in a decade, but did so as part of a strength-training regimen that has him feeling like a kid again.
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And unlike last year, when he had surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow, Sabathia has been throwing for months.
“I feel a lot stronger,” he said. “My arm feels a lot better.
I just feel healthy, so I’m ready to go.”
You want to believe all of this will truly rejuvenate Sabathia because he’s one of the good guys in baseball who cares about all the right things. In that way he’s a lot like Derek Jeter, and figures to inherit something of a Jeter-like stature in the Yankee clubhouse when the Captain is gone after this season.
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But that type of thing always depends on performance, and Sabathia knows it. For the moment, he just wants to put last season in the rearview mirror, feeling that he may have cost the Yankees their usual spot in the postseason. “It sticks with me a lot,” he said. “I blamed myself for a long time in the offseason, but now I’m over it and ready to go.”
Sabathia is well-aware that Yankee fans are skeptical, especially about his weight loss. Indeed, pictures of a skinny CC on the Internet this winter, in a tuxedo at a wedding, then more recently at a Knicks game, sparked a widespread reaction among fans who fret — some more indelicately than others — that he looks too thin. “I thought it was hilarious,” Sabathia said of the fan reaction. “Everybody was like mad at me and stuff. That’s why when I went on (ESPN TV show) “First Take,” I brought Cap’n Crunch with me, so everyone would know I was still eating. Just not two boxes at a time anymore.”
Yes, Sabathia has a sense of humor about all the uproar over his weight, but he knows it won’t be so funny if 2014 is anything like last season.
As he put it, “Nobody wants to go through that again.”
Almost certainly the Yankees couldn't survive it and be anything close to championship-caliber. They may have guaranteed $155 million to Masahiro Tanaka, but at the very least the Japanese star figures to need time to make the necessary adjustments to succeed — never mind dominate — in the major leagues.
So although it’s probably not realistic to expect Sabathia to be a Clayton Kershaw-like ace anymore, as GM Brian Cashman said recently, the Yankees need him to at least resemble the guy who led them to a title in 2009.
In form if not in figure.
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