Jobu Wonders if Brian Cashman is waiting too much.

Here we are, about a month into the baseball off-season. Some teams have disgusted their fans with awful trades and other have revamped their entire rosters. The Yankees, meanwhile, have done absolutely nothing. Should we be worried?

Maybe it’s because I got tired of watching Granderson hit .230, Swisher do nothing in the playoffs, A-Rod swing and miss at 85 mph fastballs at the belt and other such atrocities that we saw from the Yankees this season. Maybe I just want to blow up a team that has underachieved since their World Series victory over the Phillies just three seasons ago. Maybe. Or maybe Brian Cashman secretly died. I really don’t know.

While the Blue Jays got two new starters who will arguably be their best two going into next season, a brand new former batting champion at shortstop and signed the guy I wanted the Yankees to sign for right field duties, the biggest rumors I’ve heard about the Yankees all off-season have involved Scott Hairston, Raúl Ibañez and Mike Napoli. While those guys are nice players (Ibañez can play here forever for all I care and I really do like Hairston a lot), they’re not game changers.

Why aren’t we in on the Grienke rumors? How about those Japanese pitchers that are moving to the MLB this year? I’m not saying I want Grienke, or anyone in particular, it would just be nice to hear the Yankees name thrown around the rumor mills a bit, that’s all.

Now, some will argue that the Yankees won 95 games last season, and hardly need a game changing type of player. “Jobu,” they’ll say, “The Yankees made it to the ALCS last season… why do we need to change? To be honest, they probably don’t. Assuming they can bring back Andy Pettitte and Hiroki Kuroda (or replace Kuroda with someone else if he goes elsewhere), this is a team that can probably win the division again.

I think I just don’t like this team. Is that bad? I mean I will root for them. My heart will break when they lose and I’ll be elated if they win… but there are some guys on this team that I just have had enough of. At least Swisher is going elsewhere this off-season. One less 1-30 in the playoffs to worry about, right?

It also irks me that other teams are making ridiculous trades and Cashman is sitting idly by. Is he saddled by the front office’s $189 MM payroll goal for 2014? Are teams jacking up the prices for the Yankees? Do the Yankees not have any players to give? Is Brian Cashman just a bad GM? Is he too staunch and set in his ways to make the deals the Yankees need to get better? I really don’t know what it is at all, but it’s annoying. I barely even read RAB, or the Lohud Yankees Blog anymore, because I’m tired of reading about how intensely they are pursuing Ibañez. I love Ibañez, but do they have that much competition for his services? I feel like he’s not one of those guys you heavily negotiate with. You just sign him. Like they did last year.

Anyway. In the next couple of weeks, we should hopefully find out if Andy Pettitte is staying and what Kuroda’s going to do, ryry which should open up the pocketbooks a little bit and give the Yankees an idea of exactly who they need to replace. Cashman has done this before. Last year, he waited until one day in January to address the pitching staff, signing Kuroda and trading for Michael Pineda within an hour of each other. In 2010, he suddenly traded for Curtis Granderson, which was also kind of out of nowhere. Does Cashman have a couple of tricks up his sleeve for the coming winter? I sure as hell hope so.

Update – 9:45AM: Last night the Yankees announced that they were, indeed, bringing back Hiroki Kuroda on a one year, $15 MM deal. The deal would also allow Kuroda to earn an extra $1 MM in incentives. Seems like a lot of money, but you can’t really argue with it. Kuroda was brilliant for the Yankees last season. With that one piece of the puzzle out of the way, maybe Cashman can get some momentum going and pick up some other players.

Featured image courtesy of: Mel Evans/AP