There are a couple of exercises going on to test the Navy's ability to surge task forces of ships at the same time. These are things you have to actually do when you don't have to in order to find out if you can when you do.
I heard the same thing about exercises being conducted right now.
Then there are the carriers that are in port that have to go out on 1-2 week quals before their next deployment to make sure the carriers and their battle groups are ready.
There is no way the USS Lincoln is out on deployment because they had the nine-month extended deployment during the Gulf War and haven't been back in port long enough to be redeployed.