Yanks: No plans to talk to CC Sabathia

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In keeping with the New York Yankees' policy in recent years, the team has no plans to talk with CC Sabathia before the end of the season about the opt-out clause in his contract, general manager Brian Cashman said Wednesday afternoon.

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Sabathia signed a seven-year, $161 million deal with the Yankees after the 2008 season, and within that deal is a clause that would allow Sabathia to walk away from the contract after its third year -- and that option will become active this fall.

"We haven't had any discussions about having any discussions about a contract extension," Cashman said, in response to a question from a reporter. "We're not focusing on that. ... We fully expect him to be here.

"There are no plans to do that during the season."

The Yankees did not have any contract talks last summer with three important members of their organization -- manager Joe Girardi, closer Mariano Rivera and shortstop Derek Jeter -- despite the fact that the deals of all three were set to expire.

If Sabathia opted out of his deal, he would be walking away from $92 million, over the last four years, at age 31 (his birthday is later this summer).

Last fall, Cliff Lee -- a year older than Sabathia -- was offered five-, six- and seven-year deals as high as $150 million, and some agents think it would be a no-brainer for Sabathia to use the leverage from his opt-out clause to extract an extension from the Yankees, or perhaps even test the free-agent market again.

Sabathia is 160-90 in his career, and is 3-2 with a 2.89 ERA for the Yankees this season.

Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine.

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Buster Olney | email

Senior Writer, ESPN The Magazine

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• Senior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com
• Analyst/reporter ESPN television
• Author of "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty"