About The Off-Season: Making Smart Moves

About The Off-Season: Making Smart Moves

By Tim Kabel

October 17, 2026

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The Yankees began their off-season much sooner than they or their fans wanted.  They will now have a very long winter to prepare for the 2027 season. I am not even referencing or addressing the potential of a work stoppage. I will only devote time and energy to that topic when and if I absolutely must. 

The Milwaukee Brewers just swept the Los Angeles Dodgers. I think that is very good for Baseball because it shows that spending the most money on your team doesn't always guarantee a championship. The Brewers will be playing either the Tampa Bay Rays or the Cleveland Guardians. It would be nice to see the Rays play the Brewers because neither team has ever won a World Series in their history. The Yankees were finished in the Divisional series so, they will continue to be spectators through the World Series. It's interesting that Gary Sanchez may win a World Series ring before Aaron Judge. That's baseball, Suzyn.

The Yankees will have a lot of time to decide what they want to do with the 2027 roster. Since the Yankees were eliminated, I have read many articles with all sorts of suggestions about what the Yankees should do. Many of them suggest signing aging veterans or packaging a number of prospects or young players who are already on the Yankees roster to acquire big name players. I think we need to take a moment and take a breath and look at things carefully and logically.

The pitching staff for the New York Yankees in 2026 was very solid. In particular, the starting rotation was excellent. They did deal with some injury issues in that both Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole were returning from injuries and were not available at the very beginning of the year. Max Fried missed some significant time due to injuries. Clarke Schmidt essentially missed the whole season. It appears that all those pitchers will be given a clean bill of health going into the 2027 season. In addition, Elmer Rodriguez got his feet wet on the Major League level. Ryan Weathers who also missed some time due to injury improved greatly as the season went on. Will Warren was solid once again.

It would seem that the Yankees starting rotation, which was possibly the strongest part of the team in 2026 will be even better next year.

The bullpen was up and down throughout the season but overall, it was very good. Because the Yankees did not acquire any relief pitchers at the trade deadline, some of the stalwarts in the bullpen wore down at the end of the year due to overuse. I would ask Brent Headrick to raise his hand, but I don't think he can right now. If the Yankees re-sign David Bednar and Paul Blackburn and move Ryan Weathers and Clarke Schmidt to the bullpen next year along with Carlos LaGrange and potentially Elmer Rodriguez, the bullpen could be very formidable. The Yankees may need to acquire one or two established relief pitchers in the offseason. It would not involve a major overhaul. 

Missing Aaron Judge for most of the season and all the playoffs was a major blow to the Yankees. There is no way around that. If he is able to put up another solid year and remain injury free in 2027, the Yankees fortunes will improve dramatically.

There were some areas where the Yankees struggled offensively. Giancarlo Stanton was a nonentity for the team, and they need to make that official going into 2027 by releasing him or trading him if there is another team that can be duped into taking him. 

Trent Grisham, Jazz Chisholm junior, Ryan McMahon, and Austin Wells all had disappointing and dismal seasons. By the end of the year, the Yankees had developed effective replacements for all those players except Austin Wells. Don't get me wrong, Aaron Boone still inserted them all into the lineup and we saw how well that worked in the Divisional round against Tampa Bay. For next year, it would seem that Grisham, Chisholm, and McMahon will all be former Yankees. 

Anthony Volpe was banished to the minor leagues to make room for the arrival of George Lombard junior. To his great credit, Volpe handled it very well and reportedly under the influence of Shelley Duncan, approached his demotion with a tremendous attitude. Volpe turned himself into a viable option to be the second baseman for the Yankees in 2027. Although he had a truncated season in 2026, Volpe still batted .245, which was his best average since becoming a Major Leaguer. He seemed to be improving near the end of the season and into the playoffs and appeared to be less streaky than he had been in the past. Remember, he was also recovering from off-season surgery in 2026 so it is reasonable to believe he will do even better in 2027.

Spencer Jones came up and proved a lot of his critics wrong by batting .245 with 11 home runs and 40 RBI In 86 games. To put that in perspective, Ryan McMahon also hit 11 home runs and drove in one more run than Jones in almost 40 more games played. McMahon also batted 32 points lower than Jones. Jones has put himself in position to be the Opening Day centerfielder for the Yankees in 2027.

I am not sure who will be the Opening Day third baseman for the Yankees in 2027, but I can practically guarantee that it will not be Ryan McMahon. If it is, the Yankees are in a lot of trouble. It's not just because third base would become a black hole once again; it's also because it would remove any wiggle room the Yankees would have at catcher for Austin Wells. I am intrigued by the notion of the Yankees returning to the Far Eastern market in free agency and signing Teruaki Sato if he is posted during the offseason. He is a power-hitting left-handed batter who could anchor third base for quite a while for the Yankees.

That leaves Austin Wells and the catching position. It is unlikely that the Yankees will find a better alternative to Wells because he did improve significantly down the stretch of the season and into the playoffs, despite his colossal base running error against the Rays in Game One of the Division series. I firmly believe the Yankees need to acquire a very good right-handed catcher to share the load with Wells. In case Wells collapses the way he did in 2026, the other catcher could carry even more of the load.

At this point, the Yankees will have Luis Garcia junior to play first base or DH in a rotation with Ben Rice. Unless the Yankees trade Garcia for a catcher, some relief pitchers or some other area of need, that seems to be the most likely scenario.

I think when you look at things logically, the Yankee should be a better team next year without making too many drastic moves. One move they do need to make is to get a manager who knows how to utilize the talent he has and take the team to the next level.

All that being said, I am baffled when I read articles suggesting that the Yankee should ship out Spencer Jones, Anthony Volpe, and even George Lombard junior to acquire veterans who are only under contract for one or possibly two more seasons. I have read about the Yankees acquiring Ronald Acuna junior from the Braves or CJ Abrams from the Nationals or Ketel Marte from the Diamondbacks. That one really boggles the mind when you consider the injury and disciplinary issues that Marte had last year.  Another article suggested that the Yankees should trade George Lombard junior for Jeremy Pena of the Astros. Pena will be a free agent after the 2027 season. Although he batted.277 with 22 home runs and 56 RBI in 112 games, Pena is 8 years older than George Lombard junior. Lombard has shown throughout his minor league career that it takes them a little while to master a level but after that he does very well. He showed some tremendous flashes last year with the Yankees but had some growing pains. Still and all, although Lombard only batted .237, he had seven home runs and 22 RBI. Five of those home runs came in September.

The Yankees seem to be building a very nice core of home-grown talent. The organization and the fans need to have some patience as these players develop. Right now, it seems that the only major hole the Yankees will have headed into the season would be at third base. Since Jones, Lombard, and Volpe all proved that they are capable of holding starting jobs with the 2027 Yankees, it would be foolish to trade them. If you have one hole in the roof, the best thing to do is patch the hole rather than punching six new holes in the roof while still not fixing the first one.