The Yankees just announced that Joe Torre will not return as manager. He turned down a $5 million deal that included $3 million in incentives.

http://yankees.lohudblogs.com/

From boston.com and Nick Cafardo:

Torre out as Yankee manager


Joe Torre has turned down a one-year deal with a vested option to return to manage the Yankees, president Randy Levine just said in a conference call.

Levine said the Yankee brass offered Torre a $5 million base salary with $1 million in a signing bonus, $1 million for making the ALCS and $1 million if he made the World Series. Levine said the option would vest if Torre made it to the World Series for $8 million in 2009.

Levine said Torre turned the deal down and now the Yankees are going "to move quickly" to hire a new manager, but did not reveal who.

the one-year offer was the deal-breaker. that would have set him up to be fired in may or june. i'm glad he stood up to them. next question: does he manage again, or retire?

Just the way we called it. Yankees make him an offer he can't accept (20 percent pay cut) and he walks.
Yanks get what they want, getting rid of Torre, without the blowback of 'firing' their saintly manager.
From a PR standpoint, it's game, set, match Team Steinbrenner.

This may not be good news for Francona. If things go badly tonight or the weekend .....

Boy this was called back a few posts ago that this would be the way this went down...
Bad move for the Yankees IMO..

Are you kidding me? This makes the front office look terrible. Rotoworld says it better than I can:



If Steinbrenner really has passed his reign onto his sons, I hope they do everything they can to mimic the track record of the Dolans.

With Torre out, who is in? Mattingly, Girardi? I would opt with Girardi if I were the Yankees.

Tito is getting extended at the end of the year. Torre will never be the manager of the Red Sox.

I don't think it's over yet. They made Torre an offer and he rejected it. Once public opinion weighs in, Steinbrenner's nurses may put the plug back in and tell The Boss what they just did. If they offer Torre two years, he comes back as a hero and the Yanks dominate the back pages for another week.

Francona has been burning ever since Chicago gave Ozzie 5 more years.

I think we have learned Terry could just as easily tell Lucchino to stick it as well.

Press Conference: "Is this the end of the negotiations with Joe Torre?"

Randy Levine: "Yes."

It's over, he's gone, and (hopsefully) so too are Posada, Mariano, and Arod.



Totally opposite. The media is already on Torre's side, and popular opinion will be too. The money is irrelevant. The one year contract is what exposes them as the douchebags we all knew them to be. Torre comes out smelling like roses.

Very good news. Although I'll feel better about it once I know who the new manager is.On a side note, I don't see how this makes the Yankee FO look bad to anyone who rationally examines the situation. Joe Torre was at the end of a contract, he wasn't fired. They decided that it's worth it to bring him back for $5 million, he wants more money/years. Where is it written that Joe Torre gets to be Yankee manager for life on his terms? Good for Team Steinbrenner and Cash.But who cares? Public opinion won't mean anything after a couple of weeks. Come ST, no one will care that Joe Torre is gone.A-Rod returning has nothing to do with Torre's status. Quite frankly, neither do Posada or Mo. The only guy I can see bolting as a result of Torre leaving is Pettitte.

i think it's too early to predict how this will impact negotiations with posada and rivera. what if the mets fire willie and hire joe? then they could use this to sign posada.

Why is this good news for Sox fans?

I was never sold on Torre being right for this team at this juncture. I think they got complacent, and I never thought he was that great of an in game manager.

Giradi has the potential to be better for what the Yanks need right now.

This is good for the Red Sox because hopefully they name Mattingly and he fails miserably and that Pettite/Mo/Posada leave and go wherever Torre goes.

I think you're all placing way too much emphasis on manager. Whomever manages the team next year, they will be a contender. The guy you should hope leaves or loses power is Cashman.

Here's my suggested headline for tomorrow's NY Post:

Torre to NYY: GFY!

Not if Posada, A-Rod, Pettite and Rivera leave.

I am not gonna lie, bumping Around the Horn for this nonsense is just maddening. I hate ESPN

yeah, from the tenor of the talking heads on ESPN, it does seem over. i'm a sentimentalist at heart. my fellow yankee pal BBtB is more of a realist. it's time to move on, i guess. this is cashman's team now.

I could be beating a dead horse, but is there a lot of respect for Torre from you guys, as I have? I think what he did today was fantastic....

I respect and actually like Torre, and I am glad he stood up to the constant beatings he took from Steinbrenner.

I think there's a lot of wishful thinking around here over those players exiting due to Torre. First of all, A-Rod's status has zero to do with Torre. Joe Torre and Rodriguez had a better season this last year, but were hardly tight. Secondly, I doubt Posada and Rivera are going to give up their careers as Yankees because Joe Torre isn't there anymore. They've achieved a seniority and comfort zone in that clubhouse that won't be replicated anywhere else. Not to mention the shot at the playoffs and a WS, which you have to think especially for Mo is a big deal at his age. If Posada leaves, it's because catching sucks in MLB and someone offers him a gigantic contract.

Two points:

1) The Yankees look like bums here. That was a terrible thing to do to Torre. Slap in the face. If you wanted to move on... and there are legitimate baseball reasons for doing so - Torre isnt perfect... then do it the right way, not by outlining your proposal to the media to try and show youre not the bad guy...

2) I propose the first person to suggest we replace Tito with Torre be banned.

Braves fire Cox, Hire Torre

my money's on beetle juice.

Cashman's always been a Torre guy though... Cash has (rightfully) saved Joe's job a hundred times in the past when the Boss wanted him fired. I think this is more Levine and the Steinbrenner sons. Levine is back on top in the Tampa/Cash power struggle apparently. Bad news, if you ask me... well, for Yankee fans, not for me so much... In fact, I think you have to ask how much longer Cash will stay on if Levine has again asserted himself. Cashman came back and was given more control. He almost walked away after his last contract b/c of Levine and the Tampa people. Maybe Im misreading it... I cant believe Cashman would have wanted Torre to go after all this though. Joe's been his guy. I doubt he wanted this to happen over 2 million dollars.Cardinals make some sense. Could we see a LaRussa for Torre "trade?"

levine's main duties deal with building the new stadium. think of him as lucchino.

I don't think this matters much at all, but it's nice to see the semi-bungle of the PR aspects of this.

Overall, it opens the door for Girardi, whom I do fear.

Yankee fans should rejoice, IMO.

Torre was not a particularly good manager.

in this day and age, nobody is a good manager because the fans have all the answers, within minutes of when the managers screw up. the fans know everything. torre and francona are just idiots by comparison.

I really don't think Torre is a good in game manager, but I also don't think anyone else is going to be remarkably different. As I've said repeatedly, all I'm hoping for is someone who trusts talent a little more than experience. Ultimately, it won't make a difference to the team's W/L record.

Apparently LaRussa is an option? That would be sweet.

I expect Torre to manage the Cardinals next season.

If Tony LaRussa becomes manager I'm going to become a big time Arena Football fan.

No way LaRussa is brought in. New York would eat him alive, IMO. That said, I'd love it if he were hired. This is either Mattingly or (IMO, more likely) Girardi's job.

Good job Joe!
You had a great run in NY, but in the past few years it seems as though the Yankees' FO did not give you the respect that you deserve.

If Torre isn't hired by the Cardinals than I would think Mattingly would be extremely interested in the job.

Gammons has been saying for two days on ESPN that the cards and larussa are very close on a deal.

There goes my dreams

Why not? A lot harder to get a DUI when you're cabbing it.

don't forget, you guys have a game to watch tonight.

I am positively sure I read some article where A-Rod told the media his choice on opting out or not would greatly depend on Joe staying or not.

After a day game at Fenway in April I was at #9 Park for dinner with my girlfriend and her parents. Torre was sitting at the table next to us with a few other people I didn't recognize. I was already pretty drunk from the game so I was a little loose. Halfway through dinner I reached over, extended my hand, which he took, and told Torre that I appreciated his contributions to baseball, but that I hated his team. He just smiled, said thanks and then bought us a bottle of wine.

He's just a good guy.

My girlfriend's parents were mortified.

Regarding Jackson's sentimentality, a day has come here that I didn't think I was going to see this soon. 12 years of seeing this guy in the dugout is over....and it's the end of an era. Joe will certainly go to the Hall of Fame.

What Torre brought consistently, every year, to the Yankees was a sense of calm and balance. There was no Bronx Zoo during his tenure. It was a professional operation and the players conducted themselves without incident almost to a man during his entire run. Torre deflected an enormous amount of pressure from his team. Look at the managers leading up to Torre and in this case, what's past may very well be prologue.

I have seen players support a manager before, but I have never seen a group of players almost unanimously express unwavering support, respect and love of their manager like the Yankees did for Joe Torre. There were very few exceptions. Gary Sheffield and Raul Mondesi come to mind....Farnsworth maybe....and those names tell you all you need to know.

For opposing fans, this is good news. I agree with Rotoworld that this is a poorly veiled attempt at a public relations victory in offering Torre a contract they knew he would refuse. With only a one year contract offer at a base salary cut of $5 million, Torre could easily be fired midway through the first season. But more so, it's just not the type of contract in years that gives the vote of confidence that a man like Joe Torre deserves. I haven't seen this said anywhere, but you have to at least guarantee this guy a 2 year contract so he feels like he is part of the opening of the new Stadium. That is huge for the Yankees.

With all the other issues going on for the Yankees at the same time, this can only be good news for opponents. But I think I speak for the vast majority of Red Sox fans who have a great deal of respect for Joe Torre and wish him well. He will manage another team next year, and I hope it's in the American League so I can watch the return to Yankee Stadium. And if Francona does decide to leave....

Before I can really comment on this move I want to see who they hire to replace Torre. I'd like to see them give the job to Girardi but I can't see how Mattingly sticks around if they do.

As for this was handled, I think the yanks were in a no win situation here. I can't see how they could have handled this situation without being criticized for treating him poorly. How would you guys have wanted the sox to handle the situation?

There's a lot of sentiment, including on Abraham's blog, that it would have been more honest to simply say that they had decided to go in another direction. Abraham, who has a huge Yankee audience which follows his blog, had the following to say: "No one is buying what the Yankees are trying to sell." "This was low rent." "In the culture of the clubhouse, having a manager on a one-year contract who just took a cut would be emasculating. The Yankees – almost certainly – made Torre an offer they knew he could refuse."

Abraham's Blog

“We just think it’s important to motivate people,” Randy Levine said.

Motivate people? This is a team that makes it policy not to include incentive clauses in player contracts. Now they have to motivate a 67-year-old manager who has won the second-most games in the history of the franchise?



The best quote I've heard tonight that described this situation: "They made him an offer he could refuse"-Jon Miller.

It will be interesting to hear what Torre has to say at his press conference tomorrow. The Yankees did not spare any details of their contract offer, and now we'll see what's on Torre's mind. Verducci pointed out in his column that Joe Maddon got a multi-year extension from the Rays, and Ozzie Guillen got a 5 year contract from the White Sox.

But there can be no question that this was a very poorly thought out and weak attempt at public relations. And it seems that it is going to backfire on the Yankees, as they clearly made Torre an offer he could not accept.

After listening to the ludicrous conference call by team President Randy Levine, it is one of the most poorly executed attempts at spin in recent major league baseball history. After this sideshow, which judging from the early stories has nobody fooled, I hope Yankee fans will not be talking about how the Red Sox front office attempts to spin when they lose a free agent.

In a related story, everyone on Suzyn Waldman's block had to be evacuated, due to flooding....

I'd love to see LaRussa get eaten alive by the NY Media, and, despite what Gammons is reporting, I think it's a reasonable possibility. SiAS's kids will want to make a big splash with their first hire, no?

also from Abraham's blog.

I'm gonna laugh my balls off when the Yankees retain all of their FAs.

And I'll laugh when they are all signed for 4 year deals and sputter out Damon style after 1.5