CC Sabathia has missed the point of retirement by getting totally jacked

Liz Roscher
·Staff writer
Updated ·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Retired New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia has been very busy since hanging up his cleats and glove back in October 2019. He’s been busy getting totally jacked and apparently missing the entire point of retirement.

Sabathia, known for his billowy uniforms and the beefy, king-size body underneath, has slimmed down and bulked up in the seven months since he retired. The photo that appeared on Twitter on Monday night was 100 percent real, which was confirmed by Sabathia’s “R2C2” podcast cohost Ryan Ruocco.

“Not Photoshopped,” Ruocco tweeted. “The big fella has been getting after it during quarantine!”

When some baseball players retire, they enjoy being able to break free from the constant cycle of exercise and watching what they eat. Judging by his transformed appearance, Sabathia has apparently enjoyed doing the complete opposite.

Sabathia, 39, battled a number of health and wellness issues in the years leading to his retirement, including a recurring knee injury (he had surgery in 2016 but the pain continued to flare up), alcoholism (he checked himself into a rehab facility in September 2015), and a heart problem (he required a stent in 2018 to open up a blocked artery). He and the Yankees revamped his preseason training to focus on building strength in early 2018, shortly after he became a raw vegan.

The Yankees, of course, can only longingly look at the photo of jacked Sabathia and wonder what their rotation would look like if they could slot him in. They could be upset that Sabathia decided to become totally jacked only after retiring, or they could look at this as an opportunity: if they endure another season of ceaseless pitcher injuries, Sabathia should be their very first call if they start to run out of warm bodies to send to the mound.

More from Yahoo Sports: