Jorge Posada said today Willie Randolph “will always be a Yankee.”
There’s a chance the now ex-Mets manager could return to be one again.
The Yankees are Randolph’s former employer as a player, a co-captain, a coach and an executive. With next month’s All-Star Game in The Bronx, Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ co-chairman, admitted there’s a chance of bringing Randolph back in some role for the Midsummer Classic.
“Anything’s a possibility,” he said.
Randolph played second base for the Yankees from 1976-1988, served as assistant GM in 1993, then coached for them from 1994-2004.
If the Yankees brought him back to serve in the organization — as a consultant, a special assistant, a special All-Star Game coach, whatever — he wouldn’t forfeit any salary the Mets still owe him. Rather, whatever he earns in the new job would be subtracted from that sum.
Brian Cashman, asked whether the Yankees have interest in bringing Randolph back, opted not to say one way or another.
“In fairness to all people involved in this, he’s a good man, he’s a good baseball man, there’s a lot of baseball left in that man. But that’s not something for us to talk about today,” Cashman said. “We’ve got obviously the Padres here right in front of us and I’ve got a hole in the rotation to fill (injured Chien-Ming Wang) and a lot of season left for us.”
Posada said, “[Willie] can get a great job anywhere else. I think [Willie] will always be a Yankee and I’m pretty sure he probably is going to take a little time off and see what happens after that, but Willie’s got a good resume and he’s a good man.”
Randolph was set to serve as an NL All-Star Game coach for Rockies manager Clint Hurdle. Major League Baseball will contact Randolph and Hurdle in the next week.
Because the game now counts for World Series home-field advantage, MLB would rather not have someone unaffiliated with a team coaching in the game. Why would Randolph care now if the NL gets home field? This surely will be pointed out to Randolph but, ultimately, it will be his decision, though according to the Rocky Mountain News, Hurdle probably is going to replace him with someone else.
The current Yankees who’ve known Randolph for a while thanks to his Bronx days said they were disappointed to hear about his firing.
The only thing that resembled criticism or questioning came from Mariano Rivera, who asked, “If they want to fire him, why [did] they take him to California to fire him there?”
Rivera said that was simply his “personal opinion,” adding it is “not my business.”
The closer, though, felt bad for Randolph.
“Definitely. Willie’s my friend,” he said. “I don’t want him to go through that, to get fired. I definitely didn’t want that. But again, what can you do?”
Posada said, “I feel for Willie. It’s not the manager’s fault. But he’s got to pay for it.”
Posada added that “it’s tough to see a good man go down.”
Joe Girardi said he was “sad for Willie,” though he praised him as a winner.
The Yankees manager added, “I believe that he was the right man for the job, but it’s unfortunate and life will go on.”
Another person at Yankee Stadium who played for Randolph — and for Rick Peterson and Tom Nieto, also fired in the Mets’ late-night purge — is Padres reliever Heath Bell, who was dealt away from New York after the 2006 season.
“I’m happy and sad at the same time,” Bell told The Post, “because I didn’t have a good relationship with those three guys but I didn’t think they should be treated that way.”
Additional reporting by Mike Puma and Brian Costello