Two Reports Say CC Sabathia's Ready to Sign With the Yankees

The Yankees epic pursuit of CC Sabathia may finally have reached its end. And, unlike Ahab, they appear to have reeled in their white whale.

According to the New York Post and ESPN, Brian Cashman's third meeting with Sabathia on Tuesday night led to a preliminary agreement between club and player. Nothing's finalized just yet, but Jayson Stark's reporting that there are no major road blocks in the way of the union of Sabathia and $140 million. (Update: ahem, make that $160 million.)

It wasn't looking like the Yankees were going to wind up with Sabathia. While reports that he flat turned them down were premature, he was clearly looking for someone to give him a reason not to sign in the Bronx. The Yankees so wildly overbid the market, however, that no team even bothered to come up with something that he could accept without looking like a fool for leaving so much money on the table.

Sabathia's press conference upon official signing should be quite interesting. Usually players talk about how excited they are to sign with the team, but Sabathia can't really go that route. He probably won't say something like "Well, they offered the most money so I gave up personal preferences" either, but it will be a tricky navigation for Sabathia.

Plenty of Yankee fans and Yankee media think that playing for the Yankees should be the dream of every player in the majors. That Sabathia took so long to sign gives them an angle for attack the first time things go wrong.