NYY News: CC hopes Pettitte will join him in Cooperstown

01/24/2025 12:00 AM

Sabathia wants Pettitte elected to Cooperstown; On Dodgers and looming work stoppage; MLB makes two rule changes; Yankees make pair of depth signings to bolster rotation, bullpen

Fox Sports: CC Sabathia was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday and he hopes one of his closest former teammates can follow him to Cooperstown soon. Sabathia threw his support behind Andy Pettitte's Hall of Fame case in an interview following his own induction:

"For me, Andy is a Hall of Famer. Getting a chance to pitch alongside him, getting a chance to still talk to him pretty much all the time, I believe he's a Hall of Famer. … [with] my getting in, hopefully people will reconsider his candidacy and put him in... I mean, anybody that wins 19 games in the playoffs, I think deserves to be in the Hall of Fame."

The mentorship Sabathia received from Pettitte on how to throw the cutter and changeup was the driving force behind the late-career revival that likely cemented his place in Cooperstown. Pettitte won five World Series and holds the record with 19 postseason wins, though his admission to using HGH in 2002 muddies his case. His vote share more than doubled from last year, going from 13.5 percent to 27.9 percent — the biggest jump of anyone returning to the ballot — but with just three more years left on the ballot his chances look slim.

ESPN | Jeff Passan: The Dodgers have been the envy of owners across the league, the organization leveraging their financial might to make move after move to maximize their World Series chances for the foreseeable future. In the last 14 months, they've added and/or extended Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Will Smith, Blake Snell, Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernández, Michael Conforto, Blake Treinen, Hyeseong Kim, Tanner Scott, and Kirby Yates to a combined almost $1.8 billion.

There is concern that this spree is symptomatic of a disconnect in the league that will likely lead to a work stoppage when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires after the 2026 season. Many owners have renewed calls for a salary cap, something the Players Association should not and will not accept without a floor. The current hot button issue centers on the use of deferrals as teams are able to leverage a loophole in the tax code that uses the present day value of a contract in the calculation towards a team's luxury tax number. Deferring money artificially lowers the average annual value of a contract which has allowed teams like the Dodgers to guarantee multiple large sums without ballooning their CBT figure in an extreme fashion.

The Athletic | Evan Drellich ($): MLB has announced two rule changes for the 2025 season. The first stiffens penalties for violations of the shift ban. If a player is illegally positioned and is the first to touch the ball, the batter is awarded first and baserunners advance one base whereas the previous penalty was either the result of the play or an automatic ball. The second allows umpires to use replay to determine if a runner who has run through a bag has abandoned the base and thus would be called out.

MLB Trade Rumors | Steve Adams: The Yankees have reunited with one of their former top prospects, claiming Roansy Contreras off waivers after he was designated for assignment by the Angels. New York originally signed Contreras as a 16-year-old out of the Dominican Republic in 2016 before flipping him to the Pirates for Jameson Taillon five years later. He held his own in the Pittsburgh rotation in the first season following the trade but has struggled since then. He pitched in low-leverage relief for LA in 2024 but has since been DFA'd and claimed off waivers by the Rangers, Reds, and Orioles. He is out of minor league options, so he would have to make the Opening Day roster or otherwise be moved off the 40-man roster.

MLB Trade Rumors | Steve Adams: Contreras wasn't the only depth pitching signing completed by the Yankees yesterday. They claimed right-handed starting pitcher Allan Winans off waivers from the Braves after he was DFA'd earlier in the week. The 29-year-old pitched to a 7.20 ERA in 40 innings as a spot starter for Atlanta the last two years, his success in Triple-A never translating to the majors. His fastball sits in the low-90s, supplemented by a changeup and slider, and he could serve as a backup starter for the rotation should the Yankees find a trade partner for Marcus Stroman.