Despite their many trades, much offseason chatter has surrounded the Boston Red Sox being one of the final teams in MLB to sign a major league free agent. The New York Yankees, meanwhile, have been much quieter.
They woke up (slightly) on January 4. New York signed free agent infielder Paul DeJong to a minor league deal, and the response from Yankees fans and others on social media has been hilarious (especially in Red Sox fans' eyes).
DeJong is a nine-year MLB veteran and he's appeared in the major leagues for six clubs in that time. He's a career .229/.294/.416 hitter with a .710 OPS and he posted a .642 OPS over 57 games with the Nationals in 2025. DeJong is usually an above average-to-great defender, but he clocked a down year with 40th percentile range as a utility infielder for the Nats.
The Sox are also in the market for help at third base, given their longstanding pursuit of Alex Bregman. Boston hasn't been keen to meet the market price for top free agents in recent years, however, and fans have had nightmares about DeJong being its consolation prize after a potential whiff on Bregman.
Red Sox fans laugh as Yankees land Paul DeJong on minor league deal for infield depth
Instead, the Yankees landed him first. They'll use him as an infield depth piece, especially at shortstop since Anthony Volpe won't be ready to play by Opening Day — the young infielder underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum at the beginning of the offseason. Oswaldo Cabrera will also need some time to work up to playing every day after his frightening ankle injury in May.
New York's offseason moves have been quite underwhelming so far — Trent Grisham accepted his $22.025 qualifying offer (to many fans' chagrin) and its pursuit of Cody Bellinger has been fruitless into the new year. DeJong is hardly the impact signing New York fans hoped for after the improvements other American League East clubs have already made: the Blue Jays landed Dylan Cease, Kazuma Okamoto and some pitching reinforcements, the Red Sox have made 10 trades including the Sonny Gray, Johan Oviedo and Willson Contreras deals and the Orioles have acquired Taylor Walls and Pete Alonso.
Not only do the Red Sox not have to settle for DeJong as a backup infielder, he also isn't much of a Yankee fan. In a hilarious, reverse-Sonny Gray moment, baseball fans on Twitter resurfaced an old posts of DeJongs from October 4 2011, saying, "I hate the Yankees."
For now, Red Sox fans can laugh as the Yankees and DeJong are stuck with each other. But Boston still needs to improve its lineup to compete with New York and its other rivals in the AL East, and the endless links to Bregman and Bo Bichette are growing old without any action. The Yankees could have some big moves on deck with their links to Bellinger and ties to Freddy Peralta and Edward Cabrera, and the Sox need to match any additions they make to stay on top of them as they did during the 2025 season.