If he retired this year, would C.C. Sabathia be a Hall of Famer?

C.C. Sabathia says he’ll retire if the Yankees win the World Series this year, but has he done enough to get into Cooperstown?

Entering the first full week of May, the New York Yankees have the second-best record in baseball (24-10) with 15 wins in their last 16 games. C.C. Sabathia has been a key part of that run, with a 1.39 ERA over six starts (32.1 innings) and a sparkling walk rate (1.4 BB/9).

But Sabathia is getting up on age, approaching his 38th birthday (July 21), with 515 starts and over 3,300 major league innings on his arm. So he’s clearly got an eye on the end of his career, and he confirmed as much to George A. King III of the New York Post.

“I want one more parade and pretty sure that will be it, “I thought I had it last year.”

So If the Yankees win the World Series this year, Sabathia is ready to hang it up. The next conversation is set to be about Sabathia’s status as an all-time great, or a great of his era.

So with not a lot to be added to his numbers in a “rest of this season” scenario, is Sabathia a Hall of Famer?

Sabathia is a six-time All-Star, and he won the American League Cy Young Award with the Cleveland Indians in 2007 when he went 19-7 with a 3.21 ERA over 241 innings (34 starts). He has pitched 200 innings or more eight times in his career, and dropping that benchmark to 192 innings or more adds three more seasons for the big left-hander. Outside of that Cy Young win, he was a top-five finisher in the voting for the award three other times.

Sabathia’s 239 wins puts him in a tie for 58th all-time, and he’s second among active pitchers (Bartolo Colon-241 wins). Next up on the list is Frank Tanana at 240 wins, and eight more wins would put Sabathia into a tie for 50th on the all-time list.

Wins have been devalued in the bigger picture on a starting pitcher’s resume, with shorter outings the norm as bullpens have gotten deeper. So let’s take a closer look at Sabathia.

Sabathia currently sits 17th all-time in strikeouts with 2,869, with No. 16 John Smoltz (3,084 strikeouts) seemingly far out of range over the rest of this year. He is the top active pitcher in Wins Above Replacement (WAR-Baseball Reference version) at 60.9, and with just a bit of added value offensively Sabathia is in the top-10 of all active players in WAR. A label as a numbers compiler may follow Sabathia, as if longevity and a bit of a late-career resurgence can been deemed as negative.

Sabathia is 10-6 in the postseason, with a 4.20 ERA over 23 appearances (22 starts). He was named MVP of the ALCS in 2009, as he posted a 1.13 ERA over his two starts (16 innings) against the Angels.

With at least one World Series ring, a Cy Young Award, being well-regarded in a value-based advanced stat and pitching a significant chunk of his career with the Yankees, Sabathia will get plenty of Hall of Fame votes when the time comes.

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The eras he pitched in matter, amid performance-enhancing drug use, then bullpen usage and specialization ramping up. It’s often said if you have to think about it much, a guy is probably not a Hall of Famer. It’s hard to see Sabathia doing enough over the rest of this season, then retiring after a World Series win, to ever land on enough ballots to gain induction to Cooperstown. But the door is not closed.