With Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings wrapping up over in Sin City, the biggest story of baseball’s offseason has finally come out: CC Sabathia is going to be a New York Yankee for a long, long time. Initially wanting to stay on the West Coast, the Yankees finally lured the big man to the Bronx by giving him 7 years for $161 million, not to mention a city with more restaurants than any other city in the world.

The deal, according to a source close to negotiations, gives Sabathia the right to opt out of the contract after the first three years, by which time he will have been paid $69 million. Sabathia appreciated the clause because it satisfied concerns he had about living in New York and the impact it might have on his wife and three children.

He will make his opt-out decision after the 2011 season with four years and $92 million remaining on the deal, at which time he could renegotiate, leave or stay.

I’m sure this contract will give Sabathia enough money to avoid sending his children to Public School 36A in the middle of the Bronx. But does it make the  Yankees the favorites in the American League? We saw Johan Santana have a great year in his debut season with the Mets, but it still wasn’t enough to get them back into the playoffs. Can Sabathia and the mysterious remainder of the Yanks’ rotation get the job done?

Anyone who uses the argument of Sabathia’s playoff disappointments has lost the plot. Sure, Sabathia has struggled in the three postseason starts he’s made. But were those September starts on three days rest not clutch performances? Was his MVP-caliber performance in Milwaukee not enough to prove he can take the ball in important games and deliver? I’m not crazy about the Yankees’ negotiations with Burnett or Sheets, but signing Derek Lowe would be a nice get for a team in desperate need of pitching.