MLB Free Agency: Yankees Look to Re-Sign CC Sabathia with Opt-out Likely Coming

In a move expected by most this coming winter, it will look like CC Sabathia will be a free agent once again.

According to Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated and WFAN, Sabathia is expected to opt-out of the remaining four years and $92 million remaining on his deal with the Yankees.

Sabathia originally signed a seven-year, $161 million deal with the Yankees in December of 2008 and the Yankees included the opt-out clause just in case Sabathia decided he did not like playing in New York.

Although Sabathia has stated he loves playing in New York and lives in New Jersey during the offseason, it made the most sense financially for him to exercise the opt-out clause and get another pay day in free agency.

The Yankees are already the odds on favorite to retain Sabathia this winter because they know how important their ace is to their pitching rotation in 2012 and beyond.

However, the Yankees are expecting competition in the bidding process for Sabathia as the Cubs, Rangers, Tigers, Blue Jays and Red Sox could all be interested for the left-hander's services.

Sabathia went 19-8 with a 3.00 ERA and 230 strikeouts in the 2011 regular season for the Yankees.

In his first three season in New York, Sabathia has posted a 59-23 record in the regular season and a 5-1 record in the postseason.

According to Wallace Matthews of ESPN, the Yankees have started the negotiating process with Sabathia and his agent Brian Peters and have submitted their first offer to their lefty ace.

Sabathia still has until Monday night at 11:59p.m. to decide if he's officially opting out of his contract, but the Yankees are still going to work hard to try and re-sign Sabathia during the Yankees exclusive negotiating period before the rest of baseball can negotiate with Sabathia too.

The Yankees have taken care of the obvious needs for the team.

They have an agreement in place to re-sign GM Brian Cashman for another three years and they exercised the 2012 options on second basemen Robinson Cano and right fielder Nick Swisher.

Now comes the team's biggest priority in re-upping with Sabathia.

And he is an even bigger priority because even more question marks surround the starting rotation in 2012.

It's been suggested that the Yankees could look to trade A.J. Burnett and whether Phil Hughes even makes the rotation or gets demoted to the bullpen will be another factor.

And with Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon only signed on for one-year deals, the only guarantee is Ivan Nova.

So re-signing Sabathia is just as much a priority in 2011 as it was in 2008.

In the end, I do expect Sabathia to re-sign with the Yankees because they will offer the most money in a guaranteed contract for him.

As much as the Rangers or even Red Sox could try to offer him a deal, the Yankees will outbid them. They saved all the money they were going to spend last year on Cliff Lee and didn't make any major trades this past summer, so they can spend however much they want to keep Sabathia.

With the opt-out likely coming, the question now becomes how long it will take for the Yankees to try and wrap up the negotiations and re-sign their ace.

Stay tuned, Yankees Universe.