LAS VEGAS - From the $7 coffee to the $70 steaks, everything seemed extraordinarily expensive at the Bellagio this week. 

CC Sabathia was the big move. 

MAJOR LEAGUE Baseball Sabathia and K-Rod are swimming in free-agent dollars, now they must deliver on the field The Yankees get to be the Milwaukee Brewers now. 

NOTEBOOK LAS VEGAS - The way the Mets and Yankees have been acting this week, they should have just had these winter meetings in New York. 

So the Yankees are shelling out $161 million for a guy who wasn't sure he wanted to be in New York? Ed Price says they had no choice. 

--LHP Andy Pettitte was not offered arbitration by the Yankees, who took advantage of a new rule in hopes of trying to get the pitcher at a discounted price for one year. 

The Yankees finished a disappointing year in which they snapped a string of 13 straight playoff appearances. 

It turns out $161 million are worth more than the comforts of home or the joy of batting. 

Vallejo native CC Sabathia is reportedly "very close" to signing with the New York Yankees for the enormous sum of $161 million over the next seven seasons, according to multiple media outlets. 

Unless the Yankees want you, this is no time to be a free agent. 

CC Sabathia and the New York Yankees agreed on the framework for a $161 million (124. 

CC Sabathia and the New York Yankees agreed Wednesday on the framework for a $161 million, seven-year contract, the richest for a pitcher in baseball history. 

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman left the winter meetings Tuesday and traveled to the San Francisco area to meet with CC Sabathia. 

Manager Mike Scioscia said Francisco Rodriguez "is as good a closer as there is in the game," but the Angels made virtually no attempt this winter to retain the right-hander, who on Tuesday agreed to a three-year, $37-million deal with the New York Mets. 

They are the Big Three of Baseball's winter meetings, the players driving most of the talk in the vast and opulent corridors of the Bellagio, and all have been linked prominently to the Angels this off-season.