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A little more than six weeks into the 2025-26 MLB offseason, no division has been more active than the AL East. The defending American League champion Blue Jays added Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce, and Tyler Rogers. The Orioles brought in Pete Alonso, Ryan Helsley, and Taylor Ward. The Rays imported Steven Matz and Cedric Mullins. The Red Sox traded for Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo.

Then there's the Yankees, who, to date, have added one player to the 40-man roster from outside the organization: Cade Winquest, their Rule 5 Draft pick. That's a very small move that may (likely will) ultimately prove inconsequential given how few Rule 5 picks stick with their new team, let alone make an impact. Four of the five AL East teams have had a busy winter. The Yankees have not.

"It's that time of year. You hope you run into some things," GM Brian Cashman said at the Winter Meetings last week (via MLB.com). "Last year, I know we were able to get a lot of things done from the Winter Meetings and beyond. I don't think there's as deep a need as there was last year, but there's things I'm obviously trying to do."

New York's quiet offseason is not for a lack of effort. I don't think we've gone more than two days without some version of "the Yankees want to bring Cody Bellinger back" being reported. They've been connected to top free agents Tatsuya Imai, Michael King, and Kyle Tucker to varying degrees. Ditto trade candidates Sandy Alcantara, Brendan Donovan, and MacKenzie Gore.

At some point the Yankees will add players -- they always do -- and improve upon a team that won 94 games with the AL's best run differential in 2025. So far though, they've been idle spectators, watching as the four other teams in their division get better. The fan base is growing impatient (what else is new?), especially with the clock ticking on Aaron Judge's peak as the game's best hitter.

There are several reasons the Yankees have sat on the sidelines this offseason, some better than others. Here's why a team that should be as laser focused on winning the World Series as any in the sport is still waiting to make its first significant offseason addition as we get deeper into December.

1. It's been a slow offseason for most teams

The slow offseason is not limited to the Yankees. It's been a trudge for most teams (most teams outside the AL East, that is). Only three of our top 10 free agents have signed; of those, one took the qualifying offer (Shota Imanaga) and another was a signing that felt inevitable (Kyle Schwarber returning to the Phillies). Only one of our top 25 trade candidates has been dealt.

I'm not sure it's right to call this a slow offseason. This is just the offseason now. It's been slow the last few years as teams wait and wait and wait for prices to drop, and agents and free agents hold the line as long as they can. More than anything, the Yankees have been inactive because they don't like the current prices. That makes them no different than the majority of teams this offseason.

"Every now and then I'll daydream with a little bit of comfort knowing that it seems like, 'All right, this market seems to be glacial speed,'" Cashman said at the Winter Meetings (via The Athletic). 

2. They've been busy re-signing their own guys

It is true the Yankees have added just one player from outside the organization to the 40-man roster this offseason. It is also true that they've been pretty busy re-signing their own players. Since the end of the World Series, the Yankees have brought back four of their own free agents, two of whom played important roles in 2025 and are projected to do so again in 2026.

CF Trent Grisham: Accepted the $22.025 million qualifying offer. Grisham came out of nowhere to slug 34 home runs and finish top-20 in the AL in on-base percentage. It's a bad offseason to need a center fielder and the Yankees were able to get Grisham, who turned only 29 last month, back on a one-year contract. A pricey one-year contract, but still a one-year contract.

"I kind of thought 50-50 going into it when we made the offer," Cashman said last month about Grisham taking the qualifying offer (via SNY). "We wouldn't have been surprised if he turned it down because it's a very weak outfield market. It was a close call. We made the offer because we thought if he takes it, we'd be fine if he took it and excited he's coming back because we believe he's capable of replicating what he did last year."

LHP Tim Hill: $3 million club option picked up. Hill, who ranks second among relievers in ground ball rate since his MLB debut in 2018, is manager Aaron Boone's go-to lefty reliever. A quality left-on-left reliever is a necessity in the AL East, which houses dangerous lefty bats like Roman Anthony, Jonathan Aranda, Jarren Duran, Gunnar Henderson, Brandon Lowe, and Daulton Varsho.

IF Amed Rosario: One year and $2.5 million. The 30-year-old Rosario has carved out a niche as a lefty masher (.794 OPS vs. LHP since 2021), something the Yankees desperately need. Their lineup leans left-handed and no team took more plate appearances against lefty relievers in 2025 than New York. Rosario can platoon at second (with Jazz Chisholm Jr.) or third (with Ryan McMahon).

LHP Ryan Yarbrough: One year and $2.5 million. Yarbrough gave the Yankees a big lift early this past season when he pitched to a 3.83 ERA in eight starts. They tweaked his changeup grip, which led to his highest strikeout rate since 2018. Yarbrough can start or relieve, sometimes doing both in the same week. He's a boringly reliable swingman for a team with rotation depth concerns.

Not the sexiest moves, admittedly, but getting Grisham back in this outfield market was important, and Rosario and Yarbrough help address the margins of the roster, a blind spot for the Yankees in recent years. The Yankees haven't made any big moves or brought in any new players yet. They have been busy re-signing their own guys as depth pieces though.

3. They added controllable players at the trade deadline

One reason the Yankees have had a quiet offseason is they don't have many glaring needs, and they don't have many glaring needs because they did a lot of their offseason shopping in July. The Yankees made eight trades in the five days leading up to the July 31 deadline, including five on deadline day itself. Those trades brought back four players expected to play big roles in 2026.

RHP David Bednar (from Pirates): Bednar replaced the wobbly Devin Williams as New York's closer down the stretch and appeared in five of the team's seven postseason games. He had a 2.19 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 24 ⅔ innings as a Yankee and is under team control as an arbitration-eligible player next year, allowing the Yankees to avoid the pricey free-agent closer market.

UTIL José Caballero (from Rays): Short on speed and a needing versatile bench piece, the Yankees got both in Caballero after the trade deadline. He's now in line to start at shortstop early in 2026 as Anthony Volpe completes his shoulder surgery rehab and could even push Volpe for playing time if he performs well too. Caballero is a long-term addition. He won't become a free agent until after the 2029 season.

RHP Camilo Doval (from Giants): The Yankees ranked 29th in reliever average fastball velocity in 2025 and Doval (and Bednar) was brought in to fix that. Doval struggled initially with the Yankees before hitting his stride late in the season and in October. He has two more years of control remaining and figures to be one of Bednar's primary setup men in 2026. 

3B Ryan McMahon (from Rockies): Between Gio Urshela's final season with the Yankees (2021) and McMahon's arrival at the deadline, third base was a wasteland in the Bronx. By no means is McMahon a star, but he's a standout defender with 20-homer pop, which looks like prime Alex Rodriguez compared to the last few years at the hot corner. He's signed through 2027.

The Yankees also added slider specialist Jake Bird in a trade with the Rockies (separate from the McMahon trade), and while he performed poorly after the deadline and was demoted to Triple-A, he's under team control through 2028. He could emerge as a middle relief option (or more) after an offseason working with the team's pitching folks, not to mention away from Coors Field.

Bottom line, though, the Yankees have a relatively short offseason to-do list because they added several non-rentals at the deadline. They don't need a third baseman because they have McMahon, nor do they need a closer because they have Bednar. Caballero means they don't have to find a stopgap shortstop during Volpe's absence. The Yankees got a lot of winter shopping down in July.

4. They haven't missed out on any targets (yet)

Unless you expected them to venture out into the top of the free-agent bullpen market, something they haven't done since re-signing Zack Britton in January 2019, no free agents or trade candidates connected to the Yankees have come off the board. Neither Alonso nor Schwarber made sense for the roster, and giving out another $200 million pitching contract (Cease) was always unlikely.

New York's No. 1 offseason target is Bellinger and he's still out there. If they want to pivot to Tucker, the Yankees can do that. Imai's 45-day posting window doesn't close for another two weeks. King is unsigned. Plenty of lower-priced relievers are available. And heck, if the Yankees decide to move on from Volpe entirely and sign Bo Bichette, they can do that too. He's still a free agent.

"There's not a lot of the inventory that I'm interested in coming off the board yet," Cashman said at the Winter Meetings (via The Athletic). "That means it's tough to get. So my experiences, I would assume, are the same experiences in other camps, but you keep working at it."

Cashman said the Bellinger situation is unlike the Juan Soto situation last year, when the Yankees weren't doing anything until they knew Soto's decision. They're ready to act right now. That said, it does feel like the Yankees won't really kick things into gear until Bellinger signs, wherever he goes. For now, the Yankees haven't missed out on anyone. Their top targets are still available.

5. They have a history of January moves

It is a long offseason. It's a long season and a long offseason, and the Yankees use the entire clock. Two years ago, they didn't sign Marcus Stroman or Luke Weaver until after New Year's, and they didn't trade for Caleb Ferguson until right as spring training began. In 2021, they re-signed DJ LeMahieu and traded for Jameson Taillon in late January. Look at January 2019:

  • Jan. 11: Re-signed Britton
  • Jan. 14: Signed LeMahieu (the first time)
  • Jan. 21: Traded Sonny Gray to the Reds
  • Jan. 24: Signed Adam Ottavino

The Yankees reshaped their infield and late-inning relief crew in the span of two weeks after New Year's, and also traded away Gray, who everyone and their mother knew would not be with the team in 2019. Cashman has shown a willingness to be patient, maybe even to a fault. Letting the market play out into January would be on brand for the Yankees.

At some point, the Yankees will spring into action. They need to address left field, either by re-signing Bellinger or coming up with a platoon partner for Jasson Domínguez. They also need to add to their rotation because three veteran starters (Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt) will start the season on the injured list as they rehab from elbow surgery. Then there's general depth.

Right now though, the Yankees are doing what many non-AL East teams are doing: waiting out the market. They can do that because they checked a few boxes with controllable players at the deadline, and because their top targets are still on the board. There's no need to rush into anything. Their roster and the market has allowed the Yankees to slow play things.

"We are covered in most all areas that you need to be covered," Cashman said at the Winter Meetings (via MLB.com). "... Our division is the toughest division in baseball. It typically is the beast of the East. We know our work is cut out for us. We also know we have a really strong roster of quality, talented players, but the job is to try to add to it."