CC Sabathia was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday. He received 86.5% of the vote. A player needs 75% to get voted in. He received 342 votes and was voted in on the first ballot. Sabathia cemented his legacy with the first ballot election. He was a dominant pitcher in the Major Leagues for almost 15 years. He won the Cy Young Award and was named Rookie of the Year in his first year in the American League. To a certain extent, his election redefined Hall standards, but this is not surprising from the trailblazing Sabathia. Would you have elected him on the first ballot?
Sabathia’s Statistics
CC stands for Carsten Charles, and he had several good seasons en route to 251 career victories. He won at least 15 games in eight different seasons and led the American League in victories in his first after signing a free agent contract with the New York Yankees from the Milwaukee Brewers. He was a big-game pitcher, an ace, and he earned every penny of his free agent contract with the Yankees.
The lefty had 3,083 strikeouts in his career and he only walked 1,099 batters in 3,577.1 innings pitched in his career. Sabathia received Most Valuable Player votes in five separate seasons (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011) and he received votes for the Cy Young Award in those same five seasons. He started 560 games in his career, only coming in for relief once. In his career, he had a 1.26 WHIP.
The Value and the Size
Sabathia was so big, 6 foot 6 and 300 pounds, that he barely fit in his uniform, which he kept disheveled. It is notable that lefthanders, like Sabathia, do not put their baseball hats on straight. He did not. In his career, he made slightly over $260 million. He was worth every penny. Teams nowadays pay for starting pitchers who can go out and win, preventing a five-game losing streak. Sabathia was definitely that.
Alcoholism and Business Ventures
To say Sabathia was active off the field would be an understatement. He has been active since he retired from baseball and that probably helped his Hall of Fame cause. During his playing career, in 2015, in October as the playoffs were looming, the Yankee ace checked himself into rehabilitation. He is an alcoholic. He was only 3-4 in 2014 and was struggling during that season, though his problem was a surprise to fans of the New York Yankees. He came back to win 14 games in 2017, but he was never the same.
After his playing career Sabathia has been active in several business ventures. He hosted a podcast with Ryan Ruocco. The R2C2 podcast discussed the Yankees and ran from 2017-2023. In 2020, HBO released a documentary about Sabathia’s life called Under the Grapefruit Tree: The CC Sabathia Story. In 2025 Sabathia was not only elected to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot he will also release the film “Vallejo” chronicling his 1989 Little League Baseball Team.
One Billion Dollar Spending Spree
Sabathia is also noteworthy because he was part of a $1 billion spending spree after the 2008 season. The Yankees were 89-73 in 2008 and missed the playoffs. To boot, the Yankees were opening a new stadium in 2009. To win the World Series in 2009 in their new stadium (which they did) the Yankees spent one billion dollars in the 2008 offseason on free agent pitchers AJ Burnett and Sabathia, and First Baseman Mark Teixeira. That spending spree was classic George Steinbrenner, the Yankees owner, who died in 2010.
Conclusion
Sabathia was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2025. He was great for the New York Yankees and has been a trailblazer the entire time, including now. It used to be the case that 300 wins was the standard for Hall of Fame pitchers. CC’s 251 wins are low for Hall of Famers but perhaps reflect modern-day baseball, where wins for pitchers are devalued.
