It looks as if one of the biggest free agents out there has made his decision on where he’s going to continue his career, and it’s in a Yankee uniform.

According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, CC Sabathia and the New York Yankees have come to an agreement on a 7-year deal that is reportedly worth $160MM.  Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman had flown to San Francisco to meet with Sabathia and had face-to-face meetings with the big left-hander for the past three days, prompting Sabathia to decide to make New York his next baseball home.  With his signing, it takes the Yankees out of the running for 1st baseman Mark Teixeira, who they had been rumored to have interest in.

The question now becomes, does this make the Yankees better?  I think a lot of baseball fans, Yankee fans especially, think it absolutely makes them better though I’m not so sure.  The one thing that I do think works in the Yankees favor is, they’re not signing an over the hill, past his prime, pitcher like they did when they brought in Randy Johnson and then Roger Clemens mid-season.  Sabathia is 28 years old and has his best years ahead of him, but I think 7 years may be a little more than the Yankees should have offered, though I’m sure that was the only way they were going to land him.  Keep in mind, though, Sabathia has an opt out clause in this contract that allows him to leave after the 2011 season…that could prove very interesting in a few years.

The good side of this deal for the Yankees is, Sabathia is going to be a work horse.  This is a guy that threw a career high 253 innings in 2008 and who came off a previous career high of 241 innings in 2007.  They’re going to get a guy who can take you deep into games and take a lot of pressure off the bullpen, which is something the Yankees need.  This is the kind of signing the Yankees needed to make or they’d be watching Boston and Tampa run away from them in the AL East.

They still have work to do on their 2009 team, they are in no way done making moves.  Though they’ve address one part of their rotation, they are still left with Chein-Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain and Sabathia as their top 3, then you can look at Ian Kennedy and Philip Hughes, but with Hughes’ injury he’s a big question mark right now.  The other name being tied to the Yankees is former Red Sox and Dodgers’ outfielder Manny Ramirez.  According to some sources close to Hank Steinbrenner, he apparently is considering a run at signing him, but where do you put him when you already have Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera and Xavier Nady occupying those three spots?  I can’t see them dealing Damon or Cabrera, but Nady very well could be expendable.

The Winter Meetings will conclude Thursday night, but there could be a lot more to come before GM’s, agents and players depart Las Vegas.  Stay tuned….

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