Joe Torre won’t know exactly what Joe Girardi is going through this season as he turns over the ninth inning to a new closer, but he has an idea.
“It’s certainly going to be very different for Joe Girardi and of course, whoever it’s going to be who’s going to replace [Mariano Rivera],” Torre said. “I know David Robertson is going to get an opportunity to do that and I’m sure he’ll do very well.”
In 2008, Torre got to the Dodgers and used Takashi Saito, who developed an elbow injury and then turned to Jonathan Broxton, as Los Angeles got to the NLCS before losing to the Phillies.
“When I went to the Dodgers, we had some good ones,” Torre said Thursday. “Broxton, unfortunately, never really got on track. He had a lot of injuries. It’s something you’re lucky to have when you have a guy like Mariano.”
Rivera will be in Panama on March 15 and 16 for the Legend Series, when the Yankees face the Marlins in Panama City. Torre won’t be in attendance because of his work with Major League Baseball
“He has set the bar so high for relief pitchers, that I don’t think that mountain will be climbed ever again,” Torre said during a conference call. “He has done so much and in the heat of battle, when it was the postseason, he excelled so much. He was a security blanket for me.”
One that Girardi won’t have this season.
“It’s something you knew was going to come,” Torre said of the day Rivera would no longer be in pinstripes.
The closer was in New Rochelle Thursday to help dedicated the Pentecostal church his foundation helped renovate, Refugio de Esperanza, or Refuge of Hope, which Rivera plans to focus on in retirement.
“They’ve had a great run,” Torre said of the Yankees, who also will see Derek Jeter head into retirement following this season. “I remember when I took over the club in ’96 and Don Mattingly retired and Tino Martinez came on board, it took a little time for the fans not to associate Tino making an out with, ‘What would Mattingly have done?’ You’re going to get that this year with Mariano and his absence, but I think that’s just normal progression. We have to thank our lucky stars we had him as long as we did.”
And like Robertson, Rivera made the switch from setup man to closer.
“It was a transition for him because it’s a lot different when you know there’s somebody out there who’s a safety net,” Torre said. “And he turned out to be a safety net for everybody else for a good number of years.”