About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

By Tim Kabel

January 11, 2026

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The Yankees were eliminated from the postseason in the ALDS last season, and we are in the winter now. There will be no games to recap until March. The off-season has been painfully slow and boring so far for the Yankees. Other teams are making moves, but the Yankees have done next to nothing to improve the team that was slapped around by the Blue Jays in the ALDS. If things do not change for the Yankees soon, 2026 will not look to be a very promising year for them. Since we have a lot of free time on our hands while we are waiting for Spring Training, I will be able to ponder and speculate about a variety of issues. I will now move from topic to topic as if I were Augustus Gloop running through Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory

·      In the movie, Hell or High Water, there is a scene in which the sheriff, played by Jeff Bridges, and his deputy, played by Gil Birmingham, go into a restaurant, and encounter the world's grouchiest waitress, played by the late Margaret Bowman. The waitress asks them the famous question, “what don't you want?” They are baffled by this question and attempt to make an order. She informs them that no one has ever ordered anything other than a steak and a baked potato. So, the only choice they have is between corn and green beans. She then reiterates the question, “what don't you want?” The answer would need to be either beans or corn. The Yankees have adopted a similar approach to this off-season. We know they probably aren’t going to acquire anybody of significance. They haven't done so yet. The question every day is who aren't the Yankees going to sign? Last week it was Tatsuya Imai and Kazuma Okamoto. Then, it was Edward Cabrera. Who is next? Bo Bichette? Cody Bellinger? The most excitement this year is determining which players the Yankees will not acquire and in which order they won't acquire them.

·      When I was a kid, things were tight, but I had a very happy childhood. One thing I remember is that no matter how restricted the budget was, my parents always managed to provide everybody with nice Christmas presents. They weren't always expensive, but they were always thoughtful and appreciated. One thing that my mom always did was order quality chocolate to put in the stockings or to wrap as gifts. There was a place in upstate Connecticut called Crands’ Candy Castle. They made outstanding candies, including chocolate covered cherries, pecan bark, and of course chocolate Santas, and chocolate balls that were wrapped to look like little ornaments. They also made Easter bunnies which my mother also purchased. In addition, they had many non-holiday candies as well. As I and my siblings grew older, my mother found other places including Bissinger’s, Lindt, and Lake Champlain. I have continued that tradition, and I am always looking for new places that make really good chocolate. Crands’ is no longer in business sadly, as it was a family-owned company and when the owners grew old, they just closed the business. This year, I tried chocolates from Thor’s Chocolates, which is located in Idaho. Some of their products are a little different. For example, if you get their huckleberry chocolate, it is not a chocolate bar with little pouches of huckleberry in it. Instead, it is a blend of white chocolate and huckleberry formed into a bar. Anyway, the quality is excellent, and the flavors are very interesting. I opened a milk chocolate orange bar, which is made more traditionally with milk chocolate and little bits of orange zest in it. Overall, I would recommend Thor’s very highly. My younger son, Oliver, is following in the family tradition. He gave me some chocolates from a company called Tony's Chocolonely. They were extremely tasty and in fact I like them so much that I have ordered a bag of the mini bars, which are bite sized, to come regularly from Amazon. The theory that I inherited from my mother and am passing on to my children is that if you are going to eat chocolate, it might as well be high quality chocolate.

·      The Yankees are reportedly at an impasse with Cody Bellinger. The gap is reportedly in both length of contract and salary per year. Considering that Bellinger’s agent is Scott Boras, that means it could take a while for him to sign a contract. Due to the lack of progress in negotiations with Bellinger, the Yankees are reportedly showing more interest in Bo Bichette. Unfortunately, they may be out of luck on that because the Phillies, who recently hired Don Mattingly as a bench coach, may be the favorites to sign Bichette. It is certainly possible for the Yankees to sign both Bellinger and Bichette. They do have the money to do that, particularly if they traded Jazz Chisholm, Jr. to open second base for Bichette. However, let's face facts. It is much more likely that the Yankees sign neither Bichette nor Bellinger. I was optimistic headed into this off-season, but my optimism is waning. When it looks like I will be buying a Nick Torres jersey, that's never a good sign.

·      I started writing a new book last week. It is a novella, as opposed to a novel, and after I go back and edit and polish it, it will be in the 40,000 word range. I actually finished it yesterday. It is called “The Striking Viking” and it is it is in the style of James Thurber. The main character is a deputy warden at a prison in Nevada who is passed over for the warden’s position. The deputy warden is patterned after Bob Newhart. Both of my published novels had huge boosts in sales to start the new year and that seems to be continuing. Since I became a writer rather late in life, I'm not going to waste any time. I'm going to write as much as I can as often as I can and as well as I can until I can't. Writing has provided me with a tremendous sense of peace and accomplishment.  Of course, I will always continue to write for SSTN as long as I am welcome to do so.

·       At this point, I am not very optimistic about the Yankees 2026 season. There is no reason to be. In particular, I think the worst move of the off-season will turn out to be making the qualifying offer to Trent Grisham. I don't believe the Yankees expected him to accept it. While he can't be traded until June 15th without his permission, I don't know that there are many teams that would want to acquire him for a $22 million salary. I think that move is going to have several negative ramifications for the Yankees. I think they will be stuck with Grisham. I don't think he will have a season like he did in 2025. I think that was an aberration. I think he will revert to form offensively and continue to regress defensively. I think the fact that he accepted the qualifying offer has derailed the Yankees off-season. They have not done anything else of consequence. They certainly could make other moves. But they have chosen not to. I can imagine a scenario in which the Yankees don't acquire anybody including the re-signing of Cody Bellinger. They clearly need to pick up some players. Failing to do so will adversely affect the 2026 team. The other thing is that not only will the Yankees be stuck with Grisham, but I also believe that even if he does revert to his pre 2025 form, Aaron Boone will continue to trot him out there every day. Boone will do the same thing that he did with Aaron Hicks and DJ LeMahieu. I believe that Spencer Jones could set the world on fire in Spring Training and still not be given a chance by Aaron Boone. I suspect that making Trent Grisham the qualifying offer will haunt the Yankees throughout the 2026 season and beyond because it prevented them from bringing in other players on longer contracts. If I am proven correct, it should lead to the dismissal of Brian Cashman as General Manager.