About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

By Tim Kabel

February 9, 2026

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The Yankees were eliminated from the postseason in the ALDS last season. Well, we are now in February and the Super Bowl was yesterday. So, it's time to start thinking about baseball even more than we already do. Pitchers and catchers will report to Spring Training for the Yankees in three days. Position players will arrive one week from today. Since I don't have any games to recap, I will now move from topic to topic as if I was moving through the buffet line at a Super Bowl party.

·      It Looks like the Yankees have finished constructing their roster for the 2026 season. Paul Goldschmidt will most likely be the final piece of the puzzle. It is possible that the Yankees could pick up someone at the end of Spring Training, which they do seemingly every year. But at this point, the roster appears to be set. The main questions will be what happens with Jasson Dominguez, Spencer Jones, Oswaldo Cabrera, and all those young pitchers, including Ben Hess, Carlos Lagrange, and Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz. The most interesting aspect of Spring Training will be watching those young players as well as seeing how Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon are progressing from their injuries and surgeries.

·      I have never liked confrontations. I always try to avoid them whenever possible. However, when my hand is forced, I will do what I have to do. Since my family and I moved into this apartment, it has been one thing after another. Overall, I like the place very much and it's within walking distance of the beach. However, the management company loves to take shortcuts, avoid responsibility, and find the easy way out in every situation. The result is that I often have to write very lengthy emails that send them rushing for their thesaurus and cause them to wonder what my next steps will be. Without fail, I always get what I had simply asked for in the first place. I wish I didn't have to go through all this, but that's where we are. After this latest debacle in which I almost bled to death, I imagine that not only will they make all the necessary repairs to the plumbing  and heating systems, but that I will also be lying on a couch being fed grapes by the management staff. I will let them know that I prefer red grapes, just so they know.

·      Other than Ryan Weathers, Cade Winquest, and Angel Chivilli, all the Yankees did was bring back people who were on the 2025 team. It's as if they went on a field trip at the end of the 2025 season and now Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner are standing there with clipboards checking to make sure everyone gets back on the bus.  Let me repeat what I have written a few times. The Yankees team in 2025 was not good enough to win the World Series. They weren't good enough to win the ALDS. Yes, they tied with the Blue Jays for the best record in the American League. They don't give trophies for that. However, they lost head-to-head series with both the Red Sox and the Blue Jays last year. Both of those teams made significantly more improvements and upgrades than the Yankees did in the off-season. It is not logical to assume that the Yankees will suddenly be better than both of those teams. I understand that Gerrit Cole is likely to be back early in the season. But we don't know what version of Cole we will be getting. The Yankees will need to treat him carefully as he recovers. Putting basically all the pressure of the season on him is not realistic. By that I mean having him in the rotation is the only major upgrade from last year. Yes, we might be able to factor in Ryan Weathers or some of the youngsters on the pitching staff but none of those are sure things. It could be a very long season in the Bronx.

·      I continued watching A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms this week. The episode came on two days earlier because of the Super Bowl. That was a bonus. Unfortunately, it means that I will now have to wait nine days to watch the next episode. I truly enjoy the acting and the pace of this show. The interactions between Sir Duncan the Tall and Egg are extraordinary. In fact, it has made me think that perhaps I should get a squire to follow me around the apartment preparing me for battle with the landlord and other such activities. Unfortunately with my luck, instead of a charismatic, adorable, and shrewd bald-headed lad, I would wind up with the old fellow Benny Hill used to smack on the head all the time.

·      The ZIPS projection system, which has a very complicated way of taking information and running it through millions of computations and simulations to come up with results, projects the Yankees to finish fourth in the American League East behind the Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Orioles. This projection was done at the end of January. They will continue to make projections and reevaluate because things can change. There may be developments during Spring Training affecting all teams that will alter those projections. However, it doesn't look very good for the Yankees in this system. I mean we can wish and hope that Angel Chivilli becomes the second coming of Mariano Rivera but how likely is that? He gave up hits and walks like they were candies on Halloween last year. He is just one example of a player who will need to over perform for the Yankees to do well this season. Yes, all those things could happen. On the other hand, none of them could happen. It's nice to look at all these different projections. Personally, I don't put a lot of weight on them. You never know what can happen. The Yankees could get hot early and maintain it all season. Maybe this year, they won't have a Boone-Swoon. Maybe I will make the speed skating team for the next Olympics. 

·      I want to take a moment to wish a happy 74th birthday to my brother, Will. He has been a Yankees fan much longer than I have and I hope for his sake as well as my own, that the Yankees can put everything together and win the World Series this year.