MLB Free Agents 2012: CC Sabathia Extension Sets C.J. Wilson Up for Huge Deal

Had New York Yankees ace lefty CC Sabathia chosen to opt out of his contract to become a free agent, a relatively weak free-agent pitching crop would have been much stronger.

Instead, Sabathia agreed to an extension with the Yankees that will keep him in New York through at least 2016. In that time, he will make $122 million. Per ESPNNewYork.com, the deal also includes a vesting option that will pay Sabathia $25 million in 2017 if his left shoulder is still intact.

Good work if you can get it. And with Sabathia now off the free-agent market (indeed, he was never on it), the question now is how much C.J. Wilson will be able to cash in.

Wilson, who has to this point spent his career with the Texas Rangers, should be in line to make a killing. SI.com's Jon Heyman wrote recently that the estimate for Wilson's new contract is five years and $75 million, an annual average of $15 million.

Wilson's new deal could end up being for much more than that. Justin Haven of ESPN Stats and Info wrote on Tuesday that Wilson's WAR (wins above replacement) could set him up to make as much as $21 million per year.

He is, after all, a superior pitcher compared to pitchers who have signed for big money in recent years, i.e. A.J. Burnett and John Lackey.

Personally, my guess is that you're going to see the bidding start at five years for $75 million, and we're going to see it slowly progress to the mark suggested by Haven.

I would be shocked if it actually got to that point, but the numbers presented to Wilson are only going to get higher as time goes by. And rest assured, this is a process that he will milk for all it's worth.

Part of this has to do with the fact that Wilson is indeed a very good pitcher. He's won 15-plus games in each of the last two seasons and is coming off a 2011 season in which he had an ERA under 3.00. His WAR in 2011 was 5.9, which was actually higher than Jered Weaver's.

Yes, Wilson's poor postseason will be an issue. That said, consider this tweet from Yankees blogger Mike Axisa.

Poor postseason or no poor postseason, Wilson has the added bonus of being the only pitcher on the market who is anything close to elite.

He would have been somewhat overlooked had Sabathia chosen to test the free-agent waters alongside him, but Wilson certainly won't be overlooked now that Sabathia is staying in pinstripes.

Burnett and Lackey both represent good points of comparison for Wilson. They both got overpaid, but it's going to be very easy for Wilson and his camp to argue during negotiations that he should be paid more than them.

He's still relatively young and appears to be better than either of them when you look at numbers alone.

Assuming Wilson and his camp are successful in this regard, you're going to see Wilson creep into the $17 and $18 million per year range. In terms of other pitchers in the game, that would put him among Jered Weaver and Barry Zito.

Because Wilson is far and away better than Zito, you might see him creep toward $18 or $19 million per year. That he is a lefty should help his cause. It definitely won't hurt it, anyway.

Had Sabathia also gone on the market, my gut tells me that we wouldn't see something like this with Wilson. He would have gotten attractive offers, but the big money would be going to Sabathia and not him.

Wilson likely would have had to settle for a contract, perhaps something close to the $15 million per year starting point.

No matter what the final figures are, Wilson is going to get paid. Time will tell whether or not he's worth the tremendous sums he's about to get, but we know for a fact that he won't regret signing on the dotted line.

I say again—good work if you can get it.