ORLANDO, Fla. — More years than not, many of the biggest moves of a Major League Baseball offseason occur at the winter meetings.
This was not one of those years.
Not that there weren’t any moves of significance. The Dodgers netted former Mets closer Edwin Diaz, the Orioles secured former Mets first baseman Pete Alonso and the Phillies held on to Kyle Schwarber.
Otherwise, it was a fairly quiet three days at the two Bonnet Creek resorts that played host to the 2025 meetings, with the Yankees among many teams firmly in that quiet category.
Here are three Yankees takeaways from this year’s winter meetings:
1. Off to a slow start
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman used the phrase “glacial speed” to describe the industry overall when it came to the free-agent and trade markets. “It feels like there’s still a lot of information-gathering and information-sharing or preliminary negotiations that are taking place, which is the beginning or the middle of things rather than you’re in the red zone and you’re finishing stuff off,” Cashman said. “It feels like overall, that’s what this market’s feeling like. It’s moving a little slower.”
Though fans may have been frustrated by that lack of activity, no player came off the board whom the Yankees are targeting. They had zero interest in Schwarber and Alonso. Though Diaz would be a quality addition to any bullpen, a look at the Yankees’ recent history provided a guide. With the exception of Aroldis Chapman, they simply haven’t spent big free-agent money on relievers; hence, they never made an offer for Diaz.
The bottom line: Players in whom the Yankees are interested remain available. It’s all about matching up, something Cashman said that at the moment, whether it’s free agents or trades, “is tough.”
2. Bringing back Cody Bellinger still is priority No. 1
That’s been the case since Day 1 of free agency, and that hasn’t changed. After being named the 2019 National League MVP with the Dodgers, Bellinger mostly slumped in the years after — four of his next five seasons were subpar — but he rebounded big-time with the Yankees in 2025. His strong performance at the plate and defensive versatility — and doing all of that in the pressure cooker that is New York — made Bellinger, 30, one of the most coveted and pricey players on the market this year. Not only are the Yankees interested, but high-spending teams such as the Mets, Dodgers, Blue Jays and Phillies want him, too. With plenty of clubs looking for outfield help in a market that is relatively thin at the position, the Yankees getting outbid for Bellinger’s services is a real possibility.
3. Leftfield remains a question mark
There is plenty of industry skepticism that the Yankees will go into spring training with only Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones as their options to start in leftfield. “I just don’t see it,” one rival American League executive said. How the Yankees view Dominguez, once a can’t-miss outfield prospect, , and Jones, a 2022 first-round pick who also was accompanied by unrelenting hype before a bit of the bloom came off his rose, is complicated. The organization remains high on both players — just not as high as it once was. If the prices get too rich for Bellinger and Kyle Tucker, the other high-profile, free-agent outfielder available, the Yankees will continue to explore the trade market (they are known to have checked in with the White Sox on righthanded-hitting outfielder Luis Robert).
Speaking of Dominguez earlier in the week, Cashman said, “I think if spring training started today, he’d be our leftfielder. He’d be in the competition . . . Spencer Jones would try to take his shot at the title. But I think it’s easy to think, by default, because Dominguez was here last year and where he’s at in his progression, that he would be the odds-on favorite. But spring training doesn’t start today.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.