According to several people with knowledge of the situation, Joe Torre’s fate will be decided in a few days. And when it is, it’s highly likely that George Steinbrenner won’t ask Torre back to manage.
Based on the edict that The Boss handed Torre – beat the Indians in the ALDS or else – there isn’t much of a chance Steinbrenner can be talked out of not bringing Torre back like he was last October.
“(Torre’s) job is on the line,” Steinbrenner told the Bergen Record. “I think we’re paying him a lot of money. He’s the highest-paid manager in baseball, so I don’t think we’d take him back if we don’t win this series.”
Steinbrenner didn’t say anything to GM Brian Cashman or Torre last night at Yankee Stadium, where the Indians escorted the Yankees out of the ALDS with a 6-4 loss in Game 4 and took the series, 3-1.
Cashman approached Steinbrenner and said, “I am sorry, Boss.” Steinbrenner didn’t respond.
Jorge Posada wasn’t out of the batters’ box after fanning for the final out and Torre’s future was at the front of Yankees’ battered universe. His contract has expired when the season ended with a third straight first-round exit.
“This has been a great 12 years,” said Torre, who led the Yankees to 12 straight playoff appearances, won four World Series, appeared in six and copped nine AL East titles. “Whatever the hell happens from here on out I will look back on these 12 years with great pleasure. The 12 years just felt like they were 10 minutes long to be honest with you.”
While his players professed their love for Torre, they likely ushered him out with a whimper, losing three of four to a team Johnny Damon still wasn’t sure was better than the wild card Yankees.
“We got beat in the four games played,’ Damon said. “Overall, are they the better team? I don’t know.”
There is plenty of blame to share. But at the top of the list is Chien-Ming Wang. Working on three days’ rest for the first time and attempting to atone for the beating he took in Game 1, Wang didn’t make it out of the second inning. In one-plus frames he allowed four runs and five hits and left a bases-loaded, no-out jam for Mike Mussina.
Even though the Yankees chipped away with solo runs in the sixth, seventh and ninth on homers by Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez and Bobby Abreu to make it 6-4, they paid a price for allowing soft-tossing right-hander Paul Byrd get through five innings by allowing just two runs and eight hits.
A crowd of 56,315 sensed Torre was in his final innings when a chant of “Joe Torre, Joe Torre,” filled the ballpark as he walked from the mound in the eighth inning. One batter later when Torre removed Jose Veras, the same chant started, this time louder. When Torre left the hill after calling for Mariano Rivera, the volume on the chant increased.
If you are handicapping Torre’s Replacement Derby, the list is this: Don Mattingly is the favorite followed by Joe Girardi. According to sources, Tony La Russa has indicated he’s not interested.
Torre isn’t the only one with a cloudy future. Rodriguez is expected to opt out of his contract and become a free agent. Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera are free agents. Andy Pettitte can turn down a player option for $16 million and the Yankees have to decide if Abreu is worth picking up a $16 million option on.
Wang wasn’t the only one wearing goat horns. Derek Jeter hit into a 4-6-3 double play to kill a sixth-inning rally and finished the series 3-for-17 (.176).
All of that is a footnote today when the manager with World Series rings and the second most wins in Yankee history is days away from getting boxed.