Joe Girardi: Where would we be without CC Sabathia?

Joe Girardi said conversations he had with CC Sabathia during the season left him fairly certain the lefthander would stay with the Yankees. Still, he breathed easier when Sabathia agreed to an extension hours before his opt-out deadline.

"I felt what he's done here in the first three years and his love for this team, I always thought he'd be a Yankee and something would be worked out,'' Girardi said Friday morning at the Stadium before helping to assemble approximately 5,000 Big Apple Packs for active servicemen and servicewomen on Veterans Daycare packages that would be shipped by the USO of Metropolitan New York to members of the armed forces.

He added, "I'm glad I was right. I didn't want to imagine life without CC.''

Girardi wasn't anxious to see what might have happened had Sabathia hit the market. "It only takes one team to throw an offer out there that someone might jump at,'' he said. "I'm glad it didn't come to that. What he's meant the last three years, the wins that he's had, it's incredible. Where would we be without him?''

Although the prevailing thought in the industry is that this could be a relatively quiet offseason for the Yankees -- something general manager Brian Cashman has done little to discourage -- Girardi is optimistic. "I'm sure we're going to be active,'' he said. "But it takes two. I know we have a lot of great things to offer here. And I think the players who have come here have been very happy.''

Girardi said he has no difficulty envisioning either C.J. Wilson or Mark Buehrle in his starting rotation. "But it's kind of like that July 31 deadline where you hear about all the possible scenarios,'' he said, "and as a manager, you kind of have to look at it as you have to deal with people that are in the room today. But obviously there's a lot of people who could look pretty good in our uniform.''

As for more recent news -- Jorge Posada's statement Wednesday that his Yankees career is over -- Girardi praised a player with whom he's had a sometimes strained relationship dating to his playing days. "A great Yankee,'' Girardi said. "He's been one of the guys that has helped provide five championships for this organization . . . It's hard to imagine him in another uniform, but it's the desires of his heart. If he wants to continue to play and there's not a spot here, I would encourage him to do it because as a player, you have to make sure that all of that is out of you before you retire.''

Girardi spoke to reporters before heading into the Stadium's Great Hall, where he assisted in putting together the packages for troops. Whenever there's a pregame ceremony involving military personnel, Girardi, whose father served in the Korean War, is front and center. His visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in April 2010, which took place the morning the Yankees were honored at the White House for winning the 2009 World Series, also made a profound impact on him.

Said Girardi, "You really got a true sense of the sacrifices that these young men and women have made because of what we saw in the hospital and the injuries these men and women have to overcome just to have somewhat of a normal life.''

Meanwhile, Sabathia, fresh off a trip to Florence, Rome and Paris, said he was happy to have gotten his contract redone before leaving the country, avoiding free agency and, he said, the negative reaction players generally get when they opt out.

"I didn't want anyone to perceive anything badly,'' he said. "I still worry about what people think, just because the opt-out wasn't in there for that [getting a bigger contract].'' Cashman included it in case Sabathia didn't like New York.

Sabathia said his goal is to lose 25 pounds this offseason and report to spring training at 290 pounds, the same weight he was last February. He gained back the weight as the season went on, something he doesn't want to happen this season. "Come in about the same as I was last year,'' he said, "and make sure I can maintain it all year.''

Sabathia said of Jonathan Papelbon, who reportedly has agreed to a deal with the Phillies, "I'm not going to miss him. He was a great pitcher. He was great for them. But it just makes the Phillies that much better.''

He was speaking at Canza-a-Citi Roadhouse in Manhattan, a bar and grille chain in which he recently invested. He was there to promote the "CC Challenge,'' a three-hour scavenger hunt Saturday that will benefit his PitCCh In Foundation, which assists inner-city youth.