So did anything happen of note in Yankeeland during the off season? Let’s see…
First there was Juan Soto. I think I knew it was coming while I was sitting on the couch shortly after the Yankees’ self-destruction in the final game of the World Series. As the Dodgers were celebrating on the Yankee Stadium infield, I told my wife (a passive Dodger fan who grew up in a Dodger household thirty minutes from Dodger Stadium) that I would never get over that loss. Twenty minutes later manager Aaron Boone would share that he’d told the team, “This stings, and it will always sting.” Twenty minutes after that — and after we had heard from one devastated Yankee after another — Juan Soto looked into the cameras and, presumably with suffering teammates standing within earshot, announced that he was a free agent available to all thirty teams.
The timing of an announcement that only told us what everyone already knew was worse than salt in the fresh wound. We know that baseball is a business, but it was telling that Soto couldn’t even respect the moment. It was akin to standing up at your grandmother’s funeral and asking when the will would be read. So even though I was disappointed when he signed with the Mets a few weeks later, I was neither surprised by his decision nor bothered that the Yankees had allowed themselves to be outbid. Is it petty that I can’t wait to hear the boos the first time he returns to the Stadium? Perhaps.
But then there was Max Fried, Cody Bellinger, and Paul Goldschmidt. It was a free agent haul reminiscent of 2008 when C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, and A.J. Burnett arrived in the Bronx, and when reliever Devon Williams was added via trade, optimism was high. The Yankees suddenly had one of the best starting staffs in baseball, a dominant bullpen, a much improved defense, and perhaps a more balanced offense. They were the overwhelming favorites in the American League, and even though the Dodgers were playing with Monopoly money and creating a team that appears significantly better than their 2024 version, I still felt great about the Yankees’ chances at improving on last season’s result.
But then.
Gerrit Cole was scratched from a spring training start because he wasn’t feeling right, and I was mildly concerned. The team announced that he was flying north for tests, and I was more than a little nervous. After they got those test results back and that announced Cole was seeking other opinions, I knew the worst was coming. When everyone finally admitted that Cole would need Tommy John surgery and miss the 2025 season, the news came just a week or so after we heard that last year’s Rook of the Year, Luís Gil, would miss at least three months with an arm injury of his own, and just a week or so before we’d learn that Giancarlo Stanton, inexplicably, had tennis elbow in both elbows and would also begin the year on the injured list.
It was a lot.
The Yankees take the field in just a few hours, and even with all of the injuries, I’m still looking forward to the season. We’ll get to watch Aaron Judge again, we’ll finally get to see a full season of Jasson Domínguez, the star we’ve been wishing on for seven years now, and we’ll get to watch the continued development of Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells. We’ll get to watch baseball. Oh, and like it or not, there will be beards.
Let’s go, Yankees!
