Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia stands at the crossroads of baseball’s past and future

If you drew a Venn diagram of Major League Baseball’s simmering labor war, CC Sabathia would be right in the middle.

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The 45-year-old first-ballot Hall of Famer had a 19-year career and earned approximately $260 million via the league’s current market-driven economic system.

But since 2022, Sabathia has worked for the league as a special assistant to commissioner Rob Manfred, who is pushing hard for baseball to adopt a salary cap.

That’s not all. Amber Sabathia, his wife, is a certified MLB player agent with the powerful CAA agency, and two of their sons, Carsten and Carter, are aspiring players.

Carsten is an infielder who played at Georgia Tech and Houston. He’s playing in the MLB Draft League and was invited to the combine later this month.

Carter is a 15-year-old freshman righthanded pitcher, infielder, and outfielder. “He’s a big kid and has a chance to be very good,” Sabathia said.

In a conversation with the Globe, Sabathia walked a careful line on the labor issue.

“It’s a great time for the game,” he said. “With everything going in the right direction, fans are engaged in the game. ABS has worked; the pitch clock has worked. The game is in a great place. You’d hate to have a work stoppage now.

“It doesn’t matter to me what they do. I want something that is fair and allows everybody to keep making money. I want to see every player be fairly compensated.”

Sabathia is nearly seven years removed from his playing career. It has been an eventful time for him.

In addition to working for the league, Sabathia is vice chairman of the board of directors of The Players Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes greater diversity in baseball and softball.

He’s also a contributor for MLB Network and is calling games this season for Netflix and NBC.

“I would love to keep affecting the game as a whole,” Sabathia said. “Whether that’s with MLB or however I have to figure it out if I’m not working [there] anymore.

“I’m a dinosaur when it comes to baseball age, but I’m still young in life. It’s fun to be able to retire so young and still have a connection to baseball.

“I’m kind of a stay-at-home dad at the same time. Taking the boys and girls wherever they need to go and living that life because I missed so much of their childhood as a player. I feel like I’m in a good spot right now where my life is.”

Sabathia averaged 6⅓ innings per start in his career and had 38 complete games. Now he sees a game where starters are congratulated for going five innings.

“I hope we see starters going deeper into the game,” he said. “You have to learn how to do that. You have to save some pitches in case you see a [hitter] for a third or fourth time. It’s different now than the philosophy I grew up with.

“I think it has shortened careers. Learning how to pitch has gone out the window. Guys throw their best stuff as hard as they can, then somebody else comes in.”

Sabathia enjoys watching Paul Skenes and Bubba Chandler of the Pirates. Chase Burns (Reds) and Matt Liberatore (Cardinals) are two other favorites.

He also suggested keeping an eye on Seth Hernandez, the 20-year-old Pirates prospect in High-A who was the sixth pick of the draft last season. Sabathia also likes Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle.

Sabathia had some fierce battles with the Sox over the years. What he remembers the most is facing them at Fenway Park in 2009 after he joined the Yankees.

“I was catching a cab in, and they had the radio on, and somebody was saying this is the biggest start of my life,” Sabathia said. “That’s the magnitude of being in that rivalry. I loved it when both teams were really good.”

Being a Hall of Famer also has its perks. Sabathia said he was afraid to approach Randy Johnson as a player but has gotten to know him well during visits to Cooperstown.

“That meant a lot to me,” Sabathia said. “I was too shy as a young player to go up to veteran pitchers. One guy who was great was Curt Schilling. He called me out of the clubhouse and wanted to talk to me about how I was feeling and being able to maximize my season.

“It was a different era. You don’t see that as much now.”

One of Sabathia’s other projects is MLB’s Playing with Heart program. The Red Sox are one of nine teams encouraging fans to get their LDL cholesterol checked.

On Wednesday, NESN’s Lou Merloni will represent the program at Fenway by throwing out the first pitch and then speaking to fans about the importance of being tested.

For Sabathia, it’s a personal issue. He was found to have a 90-percent blockage in an artery in 2018 and had a stent inserted that allowed him to play another season.

“I hope I can make a difference,” Sabathia said. “It was easy for me to endorse this, given how it affected my family. Hopefully the message gets through.”

Ceddanne Rafaela won his first Gold Glove last season. But that wasn’t good enough for the 25-year-old Red Sox center fielder.

He wanted to improve his throwing and become a more complete defender. That started with seeking advice from teammate Wilyer Abreu and from now-former outfield coach Kyle Hudson.

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“I needed to do a better job of setting my feet,” Rafaela said. “I was throwing with my arm and not my body.”

After a bumpy start to the season, the difference has been noticeable. Even on plays when he hasn’t thrown a runner out, Rafaela has made accurate throws and kept runners from taking extra bases.

Per Statcast, Rafaela’s defense has been worth 10 runs this season. Only Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs, with 13, has more among outfielders.

Teammates Abreu (four runs) and Jarren Duran (three) are also in the top 20.

“We compete with each other,” Rafaela said. “Willie has been so good, I take a lot from watching him. It’s great to have those guys in the same outfield.”

A few other observations on the Red Sox:

⋅ When the Sox signed Aroldis Chapman to a one-year, $13.3 million extension last Aug. 31, the deal included a $13 million vesting option for 2027 if he pitched at least 40 innings and passed a postseason physical.

That seemed like a sure thing. Discounting the shortened 2020 season, Chapman has pitched at least 50 innings in every season of his career outside of ′22, when he had two stints on the injured list and appeared in 34 games for the Yankees.

But Chapman threw only 19⅔ innings through the first 66 games of this season due to a lack of save situations.

In the end, Chapman will get his money. He’ll pitch plenty of innings if he is traded to a contender. If the Sox keep him, which would be almost unconscionable at this stage, he’ll either get his 40 innings or go to free agency and cash in there.

“I want to keep pitching,” Chapman said last week. “I feel good physically, and I enjoy it.”

Chapman is also cognizant of his Hall of Fame case. He’s 10th in career saves with 380 and could move up another three or four spots. Another All-Star appearance or two also would help.

⋅ Garrett Crochet, who is not close to returning from the injured list, has been worth 5.4 bWAR since he was acquired from the White Sox.

The four players the Red Sox traded — righthander Wikelman González, infielder Chase Meidroth, outfielder Braden Montgomery, and catcher Kyle Teel — have been worth 5.1. And that’s with Gonzalez and Teel not having appeared in the majors this season.

⋅ Here’s a fun thing: D’Angelo Ortiz hit his first professional home run on Wednesday for Single-A Salem. It was a solo shot to left field. His Hall-of-Fame father kind of predicted it, too.

David Ortiz was at Yankee Stadium last Saturday, working for Fox Sports. He mentioned that D’Angelo was improving as a hitter and was sending along videos of his at-bats for feedback.

“He’s working hard. I’m proud of him,” Ortiz said. “He’s driving the ball more. There’s more pop in his bat now.”

Four days later, boom. D’Angelo was a 19th-round pick in 2024 out of Miami Dade Junior College.

⋅ It’s important for any player to have confidence. But it was nevertheless amusing to hear Mickey Gasper complain about the quality of his bats after he hit two long fly balls that were caught on the warning track against the Rays on Tuesday.

Gasper said after the game that he planned to order new bats, “because I’m pretty frustrated with what I’ve got.”

He had hit two home runs in 187 major league at-bats at the time of that comment.

There is a subset of Red Sox fans who seem to be taking pleasure in Alex Bregman hitting poorly in his first season with the Cubs. They see it as validation for the team not giving in to his contract demands.

But there are no predetermined outcomes in baseball. That Bregman has slumped with the Cubs doesn’t mean he would be slumping with the Red Sox. He’d be on a different team, playing different opponents in different ballparks.

Bregman slugged .414 at Fenway Park last season. It’s been a dreadful .293 at Wrigley Field with two home runs. Overall, Bregman’s slugging percentage has plummeted from .462 last season to .353 going into the weekend.

For the season, he is 14 of 77 (.182) with runners in scoring position with 19 strikeouts.

“It comes down to executing in the game, and I haven’t executed all year. Runners in scoring position, I’ve been god-awful,” he told reporters.

Bregman has never been a hitter who relies on exit velocity or bat speed. His strength has been swinging at strikes and putting the ball in play.

“Some mechanical things are off that are setting everything off, and it’s putting me in between,” Bregman said. “I’m out in front on soft [pitches], and late on fastballs. I haven’t covered anything from the middle of the plate in all year, anything hard in. I’m getting too disconnected, too separated.”

History suggests Bregman will find his way out of the forest and have a productive summer. Meanwhile, the Cubs are still in contention to win their division or earn a wild card berth.

It’s been a tough stretch for the Bregman family. His father, Sam, ran for governor of New Mexico and lost the Democratic primary to Deb Haaland, 73 percent to 28 percent.

Turns out Walker Buehler isn’t finished. The righthander pitched only 30⅓ innings and had a 5.64 earned run average in his first seven starts for the Padres. He has since posted a 3.09 ERA in six starts and thrown 32 innings. The Padres won four of those games. Buehler has been more judicious in using his fastball and has relied more on his changeup and slider. “We really like what we’ve seen from him,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “Continued velocity in that 94-96 [miles-per-hour] range. He feels good where he’s trending to — using some pitches he hasn’t used in the past and learning to be the new Walker Buehler and still be successful in the big leagues.” … The Blue Jays haven’t been able to get much traction, but righthanded reliever Louis Varland is having a breakout season at 28. He allowed two earned runs in his first 35⅔ innings and struck out 46. He has 11 saves after not recording any in his first four seasons and 112 games. Toronto also has Jeff Hoffman to close and are using Varland in the highest-leverage situations … Kyle Schwarber has hit 211 homers in his first five seasons with the Phillies. Only Babe Ruth (235 for the Yankees), Mark McGwire (220 for the Cardinals). and Ralph Kiner (215 for the Pirates) had more. That’s a record Schwarber should shatter. His 364 homers are eighth among active players … Here’s one you won’t believe. Padres closer Mason Miller went into the weekend having not allowed an extra-base hit in 48 consecutive outings. That broke the record of 47 games set by Alen Embree from 1997-98 when he was with the Braves … The Mets have already made four West Coast road trips — going 10-12 — and have yet to play the Braves or Phillies. Meanwhile, the Red Sox have played the Braves six times and have yet to go further west than Kansas City … Trey Mancini has been one of the better stories of this season. The 34-year-old first baseman seemed finished with baseball last season after opting out of his minor league contract with the Diamondbacks in June. Angels hitting coach Brady Anderson, who Mancini knew from his time with the Orioles, convinced him to give it another shot. He started the season with Triple-A Salt Lake City and was called up Monday and went 3 for 4 with an RBI. It was Mancini’s first major league game in 1,043 days. “It’s the same emotions you go through when you debut, when it’s been that long of a layoff,” Mancini told reporters. “It was just great to be back out there and something I definitely don’t and won’t take for granted.” … Because some readers have asked, here are two book ideas for Father’s Day. “Nolan. The Singular Life of an American Original” by Tim Brown is a thoughtful look at the background and career of Nolan Ryan. “Crossroads. A Memoir in Baseball and Life” by Dusty Baker is also a good read. Baker played parts of 19 seasons and managed 26 more, and that only partially defines his eventful life … Happy birthday to Luis Aponte, who is 73. Or so we think. The righthanded reliever from Venezuela appeared in 85 games for the Red Sox from 1980-83. He had a 3.27 ERA and seven saves. Aponte signed as an amateur free agent in 1973, then quit the organization after the ’77 season. He was officially released in 1979 but returned to the Sox nine months later after asking for another chance. Aponte made his major league debut on Sept. 4, 1980, and worked a scoreless inning against Seattle. He pitched 147 innings in relief from 1982-83. In a Globe story from 1983, Peter Gammons described Aponte as “listed as 28, approximated from 31 on up.” Aponte was traded to Cleveland before the 1984 season. From there, he pitched in Mexico and the Venezuelan winter league until he was 43. He also did some scouting and was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.

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