About the Off-Season: I’m Getting Thirsty

About the Off-Season: I’m Getting Thirsty

By Tim Kabel

January 9, 2025

***

Follow me on this one. One of my favorite programs on television was Game of Thrones. I loved that show. I watched the entire show multiple times and will probably do so again at some point. My favorite character on the show is Sandor Clegane, otherwise known as “the Hound." For those of you who haven't seen the show, let's just say he is a rather formidable and extremely irascible character. He also does not have a lot of patience.

In one of my favorite episodes, one of the villains is prattling on about something and the Hound glares at him and says, “You're a talker. Listening to talkers makes me thirsty.” After the Hound drinks the man's ale and adds that listening to talkers also makes him hungry, mayhem ensues.

Heading into the new year, the Yankees had done virtually nothing in the off-season. They have only signed minor league free agents or fringe players. The only player they have signed who was not on the roster last year is Paul DeJong. 

The Yankees were engaging in a policy of hibernation; they were sleeping for the winter. The primary activity of the offseason was inactivity. The theme song for the 2025/2026 New York Yankees off-season was the Bing Crosby song, “Busy Doing Nothing."

Well, since we entered the new year, there has been a major shift in the Yankees’ approach to the off-season. They are no longer doing nothing. Now, they are talking. The Yankees talked to the Marlins about Edward Cabrera. Guess what happened? Edward Cabrera is now a Chicago Cub.

The Yankees are talking to Cody Bellinger and his agent, Scott Boras. There is reportedly a very large gap between the two sides. The gap is in both length of contract and the salary per year. In other words, they are not close. They aren't even close enough to be far apart. Yet, they are talking. 

The Yankees are also reportedly talking to the Milwaukee Brewers about Freddy Peralta. Naturally, the Yankees are not reported to be close to making a deal with the Brewers. 

Yesterday, it was reported that the Yankees were talking to the Washington Nationals about MacKenzie Gore. Again, no deal is imminent. Let me put it to you this way, the Yankees are more likely to acquire Tipper Gore than they are to acquire MacKenzie Gore.

Talking is essentially the same as doing nothing. It just makes it look like the Yankees are doing something. They can talk to the Marlins or the Brewers or the Nationals. But unless they make an actual trade proposal, very little is likely to happen. There is a little trick that can be done with talking. The Yankees could discuss various players that they might want to acquire and which players the other team would want in return. This could go on for hours. It could go on for days. Ultimately, the Yankees could never make an actual offer or simply state that they changed their minds and move on. Although they would have raised the hopes of Yankees fans, they would not have actually done anything.

Talking is doing nothing in a suit and tie. Talking is doing nothing with a fancy garnish on the plate, you know, a rose carved out of a radish, or an orange slice twisted into the likeness of a duck.

It is possible that the Yankees may soon move on from the talking phase of the off-season into the. making an offer phase. That's where the Yankees make teams offers. But unlike the Godfather, the Yankees don't make offers the other team can't refuse. They make offers that the other team will most definitely refuse.

In the meantime, the Yankees will continue to talk. I don't expect that anything will be accomplished as a result of all this talking.

I brought a couple of extra bottles of seltzer into my office today because in the words of the Hound, listening to all this talking is making me thirsty.