It's not the crash that kills; it's the change of direction

Frankly, in a headline tailor-made for me here, I saw this "Money not an issue with Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia, length of contract is" and I had to pony-up. That's like saying it's not the ground that kills someone jumping off a building, it's the change in direction.

With everyone and their mother using Santana's contract ($137.5M/6 yrs, including deferred compensation) as a "comp", it's only logical that if C.C. hit the free agent market next year, he'd be in line for a similarly priced deal. Saying that the length of the contract is the main issue is only a cute way of saying, dig this, "it IS about the money, stupid". Man, I love how this works sometimes.

Now, Sabathia may truly love playing in Cleveland and may choose to forgo a free agent-sized deal to stay (ie: home-town discount) like Peavy did in San Diego. If he chooses that, great for him, but it surely won't be about the length of the contract.

Just don't tell me it's about the length of the contract and not the money. If that were the case, sign a 6+ year contract significantly below market value and stay.