As the weeks tick off the calendar in baseball’s longest and loneliest offseason – including last week, once reserved for the pandemic-canceled winter meetings – the sport remains in the grips of a collective inertia, with the primal urge to bolster rosters through big-ticket free agents and blockbuster trades largely overwhelmed by the uncertainty over the shape and economics of the 2021 season.

With the sport closing in on the midpoint between the end of the World Series and the scheduled opening of spring training camps – the latter of which may be pushed back – there has been almost no movement in the top tiers of the free agent market.

None of this year’s top 25 free agents, as ranked by MLBTradeRumors.com, had signed deals with new teams until the New York Mets and catcher James McCann agreed on a four-year, $40 million contract on Saturday. (Pitchers Marcus Stroman and Kevin Gausman, both on the top-25 list, essentially declined free agency by accepting one-year qualifying offers from their teams.)

It can only be seen as a bad sign for the sport – and especially the players, who were already frustrated by the slow free-agent markets of the previous two years – that the biggest stories of this offseason have been managerial moves (A.J. Hinch in Detroit, Alex Cora in Boston, Tony La Russa with the Chicago White Sox), a historic general manager hiring (Kim Ng in Miami), and the tumultuous downsizing and reshaping of the minor leagues.

And with late December approaching and few outward signs of impending deals, it seems possible the bulk of the sport’s major roster-building business could be pushed into the new year. By then, at least, the league and the players’ union may have reached agreement on whether there will be a universal designated hitter in 2021 – a huge consideration for National League teams wondering whether to pursue certain hitters – and gained more understanding of how the coronavirus pandemic might affect the start of the season.

“Teams are waiting on clarity in certain areas, and I think that has slowed things up – rightfully so,” Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said Thursday during a video interview session with reporters. “I do think as we get clarity on a bunch of these issues – rules, vaccines – that will start to open things up. Is it slow? Yeah, but I feel that’s understandable. When you look at it, how would it not be somewhat slow, given the number of things that are undecided?”

Some teams across the sport (the Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians come to mind) are looking to shed payroll, and many others are simply trying not to add any. Those teams have often cited what they claim were catastrophic economic losses from the shortened, fan-free 2020 season.

In the meantime, the most coveted free agents – a group that includes pitcher Trevor Bauer, catcher J.T. Realmuto and outfielder George Springer – remain available, and even the teams that have signaled a willingness to spend big, such as the Mets, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels, have remained mostly quiet.

As with any market downturn, however, there are opportunists who see advantages in being aggressive on the edges of the market while competitors are being cautious.

Until Saturday, the Kansas City Royals were responsible for the biggest free-agent signings in terms of total contract value – a two-year, $18 million deal for starting pitcher Mike Minor and a two-year, $17.5 million agreement with first baseman/DH Carlos Santana. The Royals also signed outfielder Michael A. Taylor to a one-year, $1.75 million deal.

Team owner John Sherman “made it very clear he wanted us to be aggressive,” Royals GM Dayton Moore said in a video interview with reporters. “Take advantage of the market where we can – whatever we need to do to zig or zag when everyone else is doing something a little different. We determined very early it was going to be a slow market, but we were convicted on who our targets were.”

Similarly, the White Sox pulled off the biggest trade of the offseason, getting right-hander Lance Lynn from the Texas Rangers for a pair of younger pitchers, and signed outfielder Adam Eaton to a one-year, $8 million deal. And if the rumor mill is to believed, they are not done. After their rebuilding effort bottomed out with a 100-loss season in 2018, the White Sox, with an enviable collection of young talent, made significant leaps each of the past two seasons – qualifying for the expanded playoffs this year – and see themselves in win-now mode entering 2021.

“I think it’s pretty clear what our intentions are at this time,” GM Rick Hahn said during a video interview with reporters. “We feel our window to win championships is open.”

Among the other early bird aggressors are the Angels (trades for shortstop José Iglesias and reliever Raisel Iglesias) and Atlanta Braves (one-year deals for free-agent pitchers Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly totaling $26 million).

Still, when you line up the business that has been done this offseason (a total of $112.6 million in free-agent contracts by the 30 teams combined entering the weekend, according to MLBTradeRumors.com’s tracker) vs. what had been done last year by the same date – at which point free agents Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg and Anthony Rendon had signed deals totaling $814 million – it is clear how much has changed.

Eventually, the big deals will come – because they have to. Bauer, Realmuto and Springer need somewhere to play. Most of the teams in desperate need of pitching are still in desperate need. There are juicy, blockbuster trade rumors (Francisco Lindor? Blake Snell?) out there that may still happen.

But at least this offseason, with so much uncertainty muddling the picture, it looks like January is the new December.