About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

By Tim Kabel

December 1, 2025

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The Yankees were eliminated from the postseason in the ALDS, and there will be no more games to recap until March of 2026. The winter meetings are a week away and teams are starting to make moves. The rumors are flying around like a swarm of bees at a summer picnic. Since we will have a lot of free time on our hands waiting for Spring Training, I will be able to ponder and speculate about a variety of issues. That could be dangerous for all parties. I will now move from topic to topic like Santa Claus bustling about the workshop, keeping the elves on task. 

·      Because Thanksgiving came later this year, Christmas is right around the corner. That means that December will go by even more quickly than it usually does. The winter meetings are a week away. The Blue Jays acquired Dylan Cease and the Red Sox picked up Sonny Gray. I have a feeling the Yankees could make a move before the winter meetings. Hopefully it's a significant one and not just another reclamation project off the scrap heap. Tatsuya Imai will be meeting with Major League teams soon and needs to be signed by the beginning of January. The Yankees are reportedly very interested. Because he hasn't met with any teams yet, he might not be signed until later in the month but there are certainly other moves the Yankees could make. As I wrote yesterday, it's fine that they haven't done anything yet, as long as they do something soon. To clarify again, I mean something significant.

·      Last year, my oven died a few days before Christmas and although I was guaranteed that it would be up and running in time for me to make my holiday meal, it was not. This year, Thanksgiving was the major holiday during which I had oven problems. The oven died on Thanksgiving morning. At least the turkey was done. I just had to improvise a way to cook a few of the side dishes. Naturally, I left the management company a voicemail regarding their holiday tradition of leaving me oven-less when I most need it. I wonder what will happen for Christmas. 

·      The big question is how committed the Yankees will be to building a competitive team this offseason. If they want to stick with the philosophy that “good enough” is sufficient, then they better get used to watching the Blue Jays and the Dodgers play in the World Series. Hal Steinbrenner should be forced to watch the video of Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. gloating with David Ortiz after the Blue Jays beat the Yankees in the ALDS. He should have to repeatedly hear the comments that the Blue Jays manager and other people made showing the Yankees a total lack of respect. He should have to do this until he is convinced that the Yankees need to go all out this offseason. It's not that the Yankees can't afford to acquire the players that would put them over the top. They simply have chosen not to. That can very easily change; it needs to change.

·      In what is becoming a holiday tradition, my wife and I watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles on the day after Thanksgiving. It's one of those movies that I enjoy more each time I see it and it makes me truly appreciate how downright funny John Candy truly was. My favorite scene is the one where John Candy is playing imaginary musical instruments while the Ray Charles song, “Mess Around”, is on the radio. I never noticed before that Candy keeps his eyes closed during the entire song, which only makes it funnier, since he is driving at the time.

·      I anticipate that Ben Rice will use the season that he put up in 2025 as a springboard to have an even more impressive year in 2026. Many people think that he will be the team's first baseman. That is a distinct possibility. However, I believe if the Yankees re-signed Cody Bellinger, the best move for the Yankees would be to have Bellinger play first and Rice catch. Many people forget that Rice came up as a catcher and was turned into a first baseman. His ability as a catcher was praised last year when he filled that role. If the Yankees did that, they could trade Austin Wells for a significant return. Having Bellinger at first and Rice catching would be better offensively and possibly defensively than playing Rice at first and Wells catching.

·      I have not written about my little upstairs neighbor, the Roadrunner in quite some time. It's not that he's become less noisy, I think I have just gotten used to it. Unfortunately, his younger brother, the Little Roadrunner, is following, quite literally, in his footsteps. They now stampede back and forth above my head virtually all day long. Occasionally their mother adopting the role of the Coyote, enters the fray and either chases them or hollers with such force that I usually jump about a foot and a half. I wish I had the cone of silence used by Maxwell Smart in such situations.

·      There is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the Yankees outfield. Many people, probably including Brian Cashman, were surprised that Trent Grisham accepted the Yankees qualifying offer. As I have written multiple times, Grisham is guaranteed a contract. He will be paid but that does not mean he is guaranteed playing time. I suspect that he will revert to his pre-2025 form and will eventually return to the role of a backup outfielder. I believe that Jasson Dominguez will progress in a fashion similar to the way that Ben Rice did in 2025. I also think that Spencer Jones is going to perform very well in Spring Training which will make sending him back to the minor leagues difficult. It will also make using him as a bench player, which would not be a wise idea in the first place, even less likely to occur.

·      I have finished the bulk of my Christmas shopping, which is the earliest I have done it in many years. I still have a few things to pick up but, most of it is done. I will be decorating the house this week. I'm slightly concerned about the possibility of Clancy viewing the ornaments and other decorations as an endless supply of cat toys which he can batter about. He is not as destructive as some of the cats other people have with whom I am familiar. He supervised me very carefully during the preparation of the Thanksgiving meal but did not make any efforts to interfere or actively participate, which was a good thing. He is much more interested in my activities and follows me around more than any of my other cats. He's also at least twice as large as everyone else.

·      If the Yankees acquire a few players during the offseason and upgrade the team significantly, they will then be able to be much more patient with the development of Jasson Dominguez and quite possibly, Spencer Jones, than they otherwise might be. For example, if they re-sign Cody Bellinger and then bring in Bo Bichette, and Kazuma Okamoto, for example, they would have beefed up the offense tremendously. Dominguez was not a slouch last year by any stretch and if he plays regularly, he should have an even better year. If Spencer Jones explodes onto the scene and seizes centerfield, the Yankees could allow him to develop because they will have superior offensive players at both third base and shortstop than they did in 2025. It is all part of the process of improving the overall team.