I write three or four posts a week for this site, so I will beg an indulgence in this one. Writing in the offseason is challenging, especially when the Yankees adopt the “run it back” strategy they seem
to have this year. There are endless rumors, smoke with little to no fire, and occasionally debates about who will get inducted in the Hall of Fame.
This winter has been particularly tough, in many ways because the free agent market never really seemed to fit the Yankees. Last year it felt like a very real bidding war existed between the Yankees and Mets for Juan Soto, but with the exception of Cody Bellinger, who it always seemed like was inevitable, there really didn’t seem like anyone on the market was a good match — especially given their apparent disinterest in Kyle Tucker, one offseason after nearly trading for him. We still talked about them because we had to talk about something, but it’s been a slog and I’m glad we’re just 11 days from spring training.
Looking ahead though, we seem to have to diverging paths over the next couple of winters, and neither of them make me that excited. For my own complaints that this winter was difficult to get through, next year represents a stark choice between two bad options. The free agency class is weak, with Tarik Skubal atop the table but perhaps unlikely to be a Yankee target given Hal Steinbrenner’s hesitance to splurge on less familiar players, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. the next-best option. I like Jazz a lot, but there’s just not that much buzz, or font for writing, about a cohort where he’s the second-best available player.
The other big offseason thought generator, the Hall of Fame, is also in a bit of a down cycle. Next year, Buster Posey is the only notable new name to the ballot and I do think he will get in, but there’s no Albert Pujols or similar Player of the Era for a couple more years (Jon Lester joins the ballot as well next year, but he’s definitely someone who would immediately get in). Chase Utley may very well find himself getting enough votes for enshrinement, and from a Yankee perspective, Félix Hernández is seriously trending upward as well, and Andy Pettitte has seen his vote share increase over time — but there’s really not much else to say.
Then again, the other path is perhaps worse. We’re staring down the most likely work stoppage in a generation, with ownership reportedly ready to hold firm on a salary cap, and the MLBPA equally determined to not cross that red line. With disruptions in regional broadcasting networks and the increasing financial bifurcation between teams that spend and teams that don’t, it feels near-inevitable that we’ll lose some baseball, even if a full season’s cancellation still seems unlikely to me.
Collective bargaining negotiations will dominate coverage of the next offseason, but boy I’m not looking forward to talking about it. There will be a great deal of grandstanding, I don’t trust the PA to be able to effectively message around the issue, and the likes of Bob Nutting and Bill DeWitt will shed the wettest crocodile tears you’ve ever seen. The two paths ahead of us for 2026/27 are a skull-numbing lack of interesting things to talk about, or fret about the very future of the sport.
Spring training is just around the corner. I may end up enjoying it much more than usual.
