Baseball Hall of Fame: CC Sabathia combined a stellar peak with a workhorse’s longevity for an easy case

CC Sabathia appears on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time here in the vote for the 2025 class and he has a damn good case. 

I had thought these last few years that he may have an uphill battle to make the Hall. I know there’s going be a certain segment of the voters and fans alike who say something like “he’s a Hall of Famer, but not a first-ballot Hall of Famer.” There will also be some who don’t think he belongs. 

In the case of the latter argument, I vehemently disagree. 

First off, Sabathia was a very nice blend of an elite peak with longevity during which he compiled an impressive dossier of counting stats. Secondly, with the continued alteration in the use of starting pitchers, I think we should be giving bonus points to workhorses who not only racked up huge innings counts, compared to their contemporaries, but also who excelled while doing so. 

For me, CC is in without the bonus points. Said bonus points just make him more of a sure thing. Let’s look deeper. 

The peak

Sabathia debuted at age 20 in 2001, but we can pretty easily zero in on a seven-year peak from 2006-12. Generally speaking, and we see it used heavily in the JAWS system, a player’s peak is considered his best seven years, so it’s a perfect fit. This was right through Sabathia’s prime at ages 25-31. 

He won 122 games in these seven years, an average of 17 per season, which is outrageous here in the 2000s. He had a 3.14 ERA, which worked out to a 140 ERA+, along with a 1.16 WHIP. He struck out 1,453 batters, an average of more than 200 per year. 

The workload was most impressive: He averaged 227 innings per season. For seven years! All told, that’s 1,591 ⅔ innings of work — work in which he was 40% better than the average pitcher at keeping runs off the board — in a seven-year span. He also had 29 complete games and 10 shutouts in an era where they were becoming increasingly rare. He led the league in complete games and shutouts three times each.

Does that sound like a Hall of Fame peak? 

The longevity

Sabathia would play in parts of 19 seasons and compile impressive wins, strikeouts and innings pitched figures. 

He amassed 251 wins against 161 losses (.609 winning percentage). He ranks 47th all-time in wins. Remember, though, wins were a lot more prevalent when pitchers were part of four-man rotations instead of five. That started to happen in the ’60s or ’70s, depending upon who you ask. Let’s just go back to integration. If you went with wins starting in 1947, Sabathia is tied for 24th with Bob Gibson. He’s ahead of Hall of Famers like Juan Marichal, Whitey Ford, Catfish Hunter, Pedro Martinez, Don Drysdale, Roy Halladay and Sandy Koufax. 

Sabathia’s 3,093 strikeouts put him 18th on the all-time list. Do you know how many fellow lefties are ahead of him? Two! Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton are the only left-handed pitchers with more career strikeouts.

Innings pitched is a bit skewed with all the absurd totals posted in the 1800s and early 1900s, but we can get a good idea of Sabathia’s workhorse ability if we isolate the Wild Card Era (1995-present). Only 11 pitchers in this era have topped 3,000 innings (here’s the list). Only six are above 3,200. Only three top 3,400. Sabathia is the leader with 3,577 ⅓. We’re talking about a 30-year span here where Sabathia is the leader in workload. 

Postseason/clutch performance

In all, Sabathia worked 130 ⅓ playoff innings, going 10-7 with a 4.28 ERA and 121 strikeouts. Sure, it’s worse than the regular season, but by nature of it being the postseason, the competition is better. 

Plus, he had plenty of highs. How about in 2009, when he was brought in on a monster contract to push the Yankees to another World Series title? The Yankees went 4-1 in his postseason starts that year while he pitched to a 1.98 ERA and 1.02 WHIP. He was the ALCS MVP. 

Also, while it wasn’t the playoffs, I think his 2008 run with the Brewers merits specific mention. Milwaukee hadn’t made the playoffs since 1982. Sabathia was acquired to help the thin rotation on July 7. He would make 17 starts in 72 games, going on three days of rest three times and putting the team on his back as they desperately tried to snap their playoff drought. They did. In those 17 starts, he went 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA in 130 ⅔ innings. He had seven complete games and three shutouts. It one of the most remarkable cases of a pitcher carrying his team down the stretch in a generation. That’s as clutch as it comes. He finished fifth in Cy Young voting and sixth in MVP voting despite only having a half season in the National League. 

The rate stats

If there is something for detractors to latch onto here, it would be the ERA and WHIP. Sabathia finished his career with a 3.74 ERA and 1.26 WHIP. The thing is, those aren’t awful numbers, especially when you factor in Sabathia’s workload and longevity. His ERA is worth a 116 ERA+, which means even with all those innings in his later years, he finished 16% better than average over the course of his career. 

If you look at Sabathia’s similarity scores, you’ll find that the most statistically similar players are Hall of Famers or close to it. Of the top seven, three are Hall of Famers (Mike Mussina, Jack Morris and Gibson) while two others are headed that way in the not-too-distant future (Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke). The other two are Andy Pettitte and Bartolo Colon. 

Switching over to WAR and JAWS, Sabathia is a bit below the average current Hall of Famer. His WAR is 62.3, with the average Hall of Famer sitting at 73. Still, he’s ahead of pitchers like Don Sutton, Early Wynn, Dazzy Vance, Jim Bunning, White Ford, Three-Finger Brown and Jim Kaat.

Plus, I’ve already established that I’m going to be pushing for the standards for starting pitchers be lowered here in the coming years due to how pitchers are used these days. Given everything I said above here about Sabathia’s workload and peak, I’m more than willing to give him a vote despite a shortfall in WAR. It isn’t a rule; it’s only one of many guideposts along the way. 

Sabathia’s case passes the test more often than not, so he’s a Hall of Famer for me.