Torre Says Goodbye to New York After 12 Seasons

Torre was hired by the Yankees following the 1995 season, replacing Buck Showalter.

Joe Torre and George Steinbrenner didn't always see eye to eye. Photo courtesy: MLB.com

NEW YORK - Joe Torre, a future Hall of Famer who guided the Yankees to four world championships and six pennants while making the postseason in every one of his 12 seasons at the helm, ended his tenure as manager on Thursday when he turned down a one-year contract offer, the team announced.

In a surprising turn of events, club president Randy Levine announced during a conference call with reporters originating from Tampa, Fla., that Torre declined a contract that would have paid him a base salary of $5 million, with $1 million bonuses for each level of the postseason the Yankees reached next season.

Those bonuses would have meant that Torre could have earned as much as $8 million in 2008. He would have earned a total of at least $6 million if he had led the Yankees to the postseason for a 13th consecutive season.

Levine said that if the Yankees made it to the World Series next season, Torre's contract would have vested for 2009 with a base salary of $8 million.

"We respect Joe Torre an awful lot; he is a great, great person and a great Yankee. All we can do as we try to go forward is make him the offer we thought was best for the New York Yankees," Levine said.

Torre arrived in Tampa earlier in the afternoon and met with Yankees officials, including George Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman, at Legends Field, the team's Spring Training complex.

Torre was not present for the conference call. Levine said he had left.

"Based on my conversations with him the last few days, he understood essentially the arena that we were in," Cashman said. "I asked him on the plane down, I asked him last night on the phone, where his mind was at. He honestly didn't know."

Torre was hired by the Yankees following the 1995 season, replacing Buck Showalter. The move initially was not received well in New York, which remembered the Brooklyn-born Torre from when he was manager of losing Mets teams from 1977-81.

That changed quickly, however, as the 1996 Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves, rebounding from an 0-2 deficit, in the World Series -- their first world championship since 1978.

Torre's Yankees went on to win three more World Series over the next four seasons, from 1998-2000.

Speculation about a replacement for Torre will most certainly center on bench coach Don Mattingly, former catcher and Marlins manager Joe Girardi, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and perhaps coaches such as Tony Pena and Larry Bowa.

"At this stage, it's premature to go through. Obviously this is a different day," Cashman said. "We're talking about someone who's been here for 12 years. We will start assembling what we think is the best fit for managing the Yankees. ... I can promise you that the process will take some time. I ask for everybody's patience as we review and interview the individuals."

Story by: Bryan Hoch

Courtesy: MLB.com

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