CC Sabathia was ready to give up a $500,000 bonus to back up his teammate.
In the end, he didn’t have to, as the Yankees wound up paying him, anyway.
Sabathia was two innings shy of reaching 155 on the season when he was ejected for throwing at Jesus Sucre in a game against the Rays in his final outing of the year.
The lefty was retaliating for Tampa Bay’s Andrew Kittredge throwing a 93-MPH fastball near Austin Romine’s head in the top of the sixth — an inning after Sabathia drilled Jake Bauers with a pitch.
Sabathia, who cruised through the first five innings of the start and seemed a lock to finish the next two frames to reach the 155-inning mark that would trigger the bonus, was immediately ejected.
As he left the mound on Sept. 27, Sabathia pointed to the Tampa Bay dugout and shouted, “That’s for you, bitch.”
After initially toying with the idea of having Sabathia pitch two innings out of the bullpen over the final games of the regular season, the pitcher — who re-signed with the Yankees for another season for $8 million — decided not to. He ended the year 9-7 with a 3.65 ERA in 29 starts.
“We thought it was a very nice gesture by the Yankees,” Sabathia’s agent, Kyle Thousand, told the Associated Press on Monday. “CC was very appreciative and is really excited to come back next year and hopefully win a championship.”
The move could open the door for other players to request bonus payments for milestones they didn’t reach. The bonus only became known when it was included in the team’s final luxury tax payroll.
“It was something that we did very private and weren’t looking to publicize,” general manager Brian Cashman told The AP. “And I’ll just leave it at that.”
Sabathia was also suspended five games for the incident and if it is upheld, he will serve it at the beginning of next season.