A humorous afternoon diversion: the Yankees paid out a $500,000 innings pitched bonus to CC Sabathia that he didn’t actually earn.
Why?
He missed the innings required for the bonus (likely) only because he got chucked from his final start of the year after plunking Rays catcher Jesus Sucre in retaliation for Andrew Kittredge throwing a pitch behind Austin Romine earlier in the game:
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Had he not been ejected, Sabathia probably would have pitched a couple more innings and earned the bonus. Quietly, the Yankees decided to still pay Sabathia the bonus, a fact revealed only when the AP released the Yankees’ payroll for luxury tax purposes.
Think the Yankees still would have done it if the bonus had put them over the luxury tax? Heh. I doubt that one.
I’m a little torn on this, by the way. I like that the Yankees did right by Sabathia since he was about to earn the bonus, and missed it only because he was sticking up for his teammates. But I also kinda still really hate the idea of retaliation.
In the end, I guess I’ll just decide it was a nice thing the Yankees did, and kind of a funny story.