CC Sabathia

Carsten Charles Sabathia Jr. (/səˈbæθiə/ sə-BA-thee-uh; born July 21, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, and New York Yankees. Sabathia batted and threw left-handed.

Sabathia made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians in 2001 and placed second in the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year Award voting, behind the year's AL Most Valuable Player, Ichiro Suzuki. Sabathia played the first seven and a half seasons of his career with the Indians, with whom he won the 2007 Cy Young Award. He led the Indians to the 2007 AL Central Division title and their first postseason berth since his rookie year. Following a trade, Sabathia played the second half of the 2008 season with the Milwaukee Brewers, helping them make the playoffs for the first time in 26 years.

In the 2008 offseason, Sabathia signed a seven-year, $161 million contract with the New York Yankees; at the time, it was the largest contract ever signed by a pitcher. With the Yankees, Sabathia led all of MLB in wins in both 2009 and 2010 and won a World Series championship in 2009. He was also voted the 2009 AL Championship Series Most Valuable Player. After mid-career struggles attributed to lost fastball velocity, chronic knee injuries, and alcoholism, Sabathia again found success in the late 2010s after reinventing himself as a control pitcher before retiring after the 2019 season.

During his career, Sabathia was named an All-Star six times and won the Warren Spahn Award three times in a row (2007–2009). In August 2017, Sabathia became the all-time AL leader in strikeouts by a left-handed pitcher. On April 30, 2019, he became the seventeenth pitcher in MLB history to reach 3,000 strikeouts. When he retired following the end of the 2019 season, he led all active Major League players in career wins, career innings pitched, and career strikeouts. With 251 career victories, Sabathia is tied with Bob Gibson for the second-most wins by a Black pitcher in major league history (behind Ferguson Jenkins); he was the first pitcher to debut in the 21st century and post at least 250 career wins in regular-season play. In 2025, Sabathia was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Sabathia was born in Vallejo, California and attended Vallejo High School, where he excelled in baseball, basketball, and football. As a teenager, Sabathia played summer baseball in the Major League Baseball youth program, Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI). In baseball, he compiled a win–loss record of 6–0 with an 0.77 earned run average (ERA) and 82 strikeouts in 45+2⁄3 innings pitched during his senior season. He was the top high school prospect in Northern California according to Baseball America. In football, he was an all-conference tight end. He received scholarship offers to play college football, including one from the University of California, Los Angeles; he signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and to play baseball and football for the Hawaiʻi Rainbow Warriors. Sabathia graduated from Vallejo High School in 1998 and went directly from high school to minor league baseball.

The Cleveland Indians selected Sabathia in the first round, with the 20th overall selection, of the 1998 MLB draft. He signed for a $1.3 million signing bonus and pitched in the Indians' minor league system for three seasons.

In 2000, Sabathia was selected for the 28-man United States Olympic Team roster. He appeared in one pre-Olympic tournament game in Sydney, Australia, but was not on the official 24-man, Gold Medal-winning roster because he was called up by the Cleveland Indians. He was named the Indians' 2000 Minor League Player of the Year (receiving the "Lou Boudreau Award").

In 2001, at age 20, Sabathia began his rookie season as the youngest player in the Major Leagues. He made his major league debut on April 8, 2001 against the Baltimore Orioles, allowing three earned runs on three hits while walking two and striking out three in 5+2⁄3 innings. Sabathia would take a no-decision in Cleveland's 4–3 win. He ended the season with a 17–5 record and a 4.39 ERA in 33 starts, finishing second in the AL voting for Rookie of the Year behind future Yankees teammate Ichiro Suzuki. Sabathia also made his first postseason appearance in 2001, pitching Game 3 of the 2001 American League Division Series against the Seattle Mariners. He earned the win, pitching six innings, allowing two earned runs and striking out five in a 17–2 rout. At 21 years, 85 days of age, Sabathia became the second-youngest pitcher to win a Division Series game, after Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. The Indians went on to lose the series to the Mariners in five games.