MORE AND more, you sense the Yankees are going to make an offer Joe Torre must refuse.
Yankee executives have hinted that in order to return Torre might have to take a paycut from his $7 million annual salary. It would not be surprising if the Yanks offered Torre a one-year, $4 million extension, which would keep him the highest paid manager, but just barely.
Torre would know such a pact – less dollars, no extra years – would leave him so much more vulnerable to be fired during the season should the Yanks get off to something resembling a 21-29 start again. He almost certainly would not accept such an offer. The Yanks would know that, too, and could then plan to spin this as Torre spurning the Yankees rather than the other way around.
They have experience in this area. After the 1995 season, Buck Showalter’s contract expired and George Steinbrenner waved the kind of inferior proposal at him that The Boss knew Showalter would be unable to accept. He tried then to play it as Showalter firing himself. No one believed it then and no one will believe it now if the Yanks try to redeploy the strategy.
Torre replaced Showalter and in the 12 seasons since has been the kind of employee – successful and dignified – that should be getting the best treatment now, even if it is just politeness out the door. And, of course, it should not be out the door. The best choice to manage the 2008 Yankees remains the man who replaced Showalter. No one is better suited temperamentally than Torre to handle the job and no one has a better chance of steering the club to the postseason again.
Yankee officials are scheduled to meet next week in Tampa and debate this subject. That money is a huge issue is no shock. Steinbrenner has always perceived that Torre strong-armed the organization when renegotiating his pay all the way up to that managerial record $7 million annually when the team was winning titles and his popularity was peaking. And The Boss has never let go of his annoyance at that.
But the fixation on the money is also the most powerful sign yet that Hank and Hal Steinbrenner are making way more decisions now than their fading father. The children are said to have a more frugal nature and a greater long-term view about financial planning than The Boss ever did.
What everyone must navigate, however, is that published statement from The Boss last weekend. George Steinbrenner said if the Yanks did not advance out of the first round, then Torre almost certainly would be dismissed. To keep Torre now would mean finding a way for the aging, emotional father to save face as much as the kids want to save money.
That is not simple. This has been, for years, personal for George against Torre. He has not liked how much money the manager earned, and he has not liked how much praise Torre has received for the team’s success, and he has liked both a lot less since the Yanks regularly began playing fewer October games.
It also, believe it or not, does not help Torre to have so many players, such as Mariano Rivera, state that the manager should undoubtedly return and that their own free-agent status could be dictated by if Torre stays.
The Steinbrenner family, not just father, but sons, as well, hardly wants to hear that anyone within the organization is bigger than the organization.
And it hardly helps that Torre’s enemy list within the organization, while small, has key members with proximity to George’s ear.
But Steinbrenner and those cronies have it wrong. They are pushing away a man whom they should be doing everything possible to keep for his managerial career and beyond as a face of the organization.
Torre was central to the brew here the past dozen years that created an atmosphere to start a new network, fill all the seats, build a new stadium, expand the powerful brand and humanize the organization.
Whatever he is paid, it is hard to conceive he has done anything but make the Yanks money and improve the image.
Trying to shortchange him now would, ultimately, shortchange the organization most.