Sabathia Signs with the Yanks

So my prediction that Sabathia would not be the first big name starter to sign was wrong, sue me. Today Sabathia signed with the Yankees for a reported $160m for 7 years. Amidst a lot of rumors about Sabathia waiting for the Angels and that he prefered to sign with the Dodgers, the Yankees snag him up upping the contract from the 6 years $140m to 7 years $160m. A little less than $23m per year the deal is very similar to Johan's extension in New York for 6 years $137.5m, it's actually cheaper per year but has an extra year. If the Yankees didn't sign Sabathia it could have ruined their offseason, but now they get the ace they coveted to anchor an improved pitching staff.

Now the focus shifts to Teixeira and where he will sign. It was reported the Yankees would go after him if they couldn't sign Sabathia, but who's to say they can't sign both. They easily could afford both, but at this point it'd be hard for the Red Sox to let that happen. I don't care about all the fuss of what to do with Lowell, he's a good teammate and the Red Sox can afford to have him sit with Youk and Teix starting.

Every starter has been waiting for Sabathia to sign to set the market, now maybe Lowe, Burnett, and Sheets will sign soonish. The Yankees did a nice job getting CC out of the way pretty quickly, and all their attention is now on pairing him with another one of those 3 starters. Burnett and Lowe were early targets of the Yanks, but with CC gone those two are higher commodities to other teams, and I think it would make more sense for the Yankees to get Sheets before Burnett and Lowe are signed, driving up the price of Sheets.

A lot of people may say how spending $160m on Sabathia is a waste of money and point to his build and the innings he pitched the last 2 years. Bill Simmons has even said he's looking forward to a "365-pound CC Sabathia laboring through a 98° game at Yankee Stadium in 2012 with four more years and $105 million remaining on his contract." If the Sox didn't have Lester and it made a lot of sense to sign Sabathia I wonder how he would feel. It's easy to speculate that because he's large he'll get larger, and because he's pitched a lot of innings he'll get hurt. I'll point to his durability to handle the load (partially because he is large) and how his contract compares favorable to Johan's.

UPDATE:
It looks like it is 7 years $161m which makes it an even $23m per, more than Johan's. Also there is an opt-out clause after 3 years. It obviously benefits Sabathia, but say he opts out, is it a bad thing the Yankees won't have to pay Sabathia $20+m when he's a 31 year old pitcher? Could benefit both sides.