Yankees to bring back CC Sabathia on one-year deal

The New York Yankees and CC Sabathia are close to finalizing a one-year, $8-million deal that will keep the starting pitcher in pinstripes for the 2019 season.

Sources close to the team said the agreement to bring back the 38-year-old Sabathia was nearly complete. It is expected to become official after the 1.98-meter (6-foot-6), 136-kilogram (300-pound) pitcher undergoes a physical on Wednesday, according to Major League Baseball ‘s official Web site.

Sabathia, who formerly starred for the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers , signed a seven-year, $161-million contract with the Yankees in late 2008 and helped lead the storied club to its 27th and most recent World Series title the following season.

The southpaw, who will turn 39 next July, showed he remains a durable and dependable starter by pitching 153 innings in 2018 and posting a 9-7 record and a 3.65 ERA.

The Yankees made the playoffs but lost in one of the best-of-five American League Division Series to the eventual world champion Boston Red Sox .

Sabathia pitched just three innings against the Yankees’ arch-rival in the postseason, giving up three runs and five hits in just three innings of work in the series-clinching Game 4 of their ALDS.

The left-hander has the second-most wins (246 wins) among active pitchers behind only 45-year-old Bartolo Colon (247).

Sabathia, who underwent surgery on his right knee in October, joins two other starters - Luis Severino and Japan’s Masahiro Tanaka - who will be back in the Yankees’ rotation in 2019.