TAMPA, Fla. – As usual, the big-hearted Johnny Damon was concerned about others when he heard Joe Torre and the Yankees parted ways yesterday.
“He has meant a lot to Yankee fans and certainly to the group of guys who have been around forever,” Damon said of Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada. “He has been the only manager they have ever had. It’s definitely going to be different for them.”
Like a lot of other Yankee players, Damon said he was to blame for Torre’s job becoming an issue in the ALDS when George Steinbrenner delivered an edict that the Yankees needed to beat the Indians to save Torre’s job. It turned out the Yankees made an offer – and a $2.5 million paycut – to bring Torre back, but he rejected it.
“We didn’t get the job done for him,” Damon said. “I don’t know what they offered him but he had to make a decision and unfortunately he isn’t there anymore.”
As for Posada and Rivera, they indicated during the season that who the manager is would play a part in their decision to return or leave.
“Let’s see who they put in there,” Posada said in August when asked if Torre wasn’t back would he split, too.
Rivera was upset about the Boss’ edict but didn’t return a call last night.
Of the two, Posada is more likely to leave than Rivera.
Jeter’s agent, Casey Close, attempted to get a response from his client, who was traveling. Messages left for representatives of Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte weren’t returned, but the day before Randy Hendricks wrote in an e-mail that “Andy considers Joe to be a father figure.”
The managerial vacancy will figure in Alex Rodriguez‘s decision, too. Rodriguez and Torre were a lot closer this season than in Rodriguez’s first three years. He can opt out 10 days after the World Series and become a free agent. If the Yankees don’t have a manager by then, it will hurt their efforts to sign him to an extension before he becomes a free agent.
Larry Bowa, Torre’s third-base coach for the past two years and a candidate to be Don Mattingly’s bench coach if Mattingly replaces Torre, was stunned.
“Shocked, that’s the only word I can say,” Bowa said.
Though Ron Guidry wasn’t likely to be brought back for a third year as the pitching coach, yesterday’s news finished Guidry. That means the Yankees will have their third pitching coach in four years. Dave Eiland, who nurtured Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy in the minor leagues, is a candidate.