End of an Era...

[helicopper 1,050]

Torre rejects Yankees' contract offer

10/18/2007 4:10 PM ET

By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- Joe Torre turned down a one-year contract offer to continue managing the Yankees, the team announced on Thursday.

In a shocking turn of events, club president Randy Levine announced during a conference call with reporters originating from Tampa, Fla., that Torre rejected 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.

Levine said that if the Yankees made it to the World Series next season, his contract would have extended to 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 didnt know."

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

And as I type this, the airport is going bananas with media because Torre is flying back home to Westchester...

[Guest]

We have room on the mets....lol

[Bunkers 0]

I sure will miss torre. He is a great guy, and a great manager..

Torre, enjoy retirement!

[rfdu39 89]

Whose ready for Donnie Baseball to take over? Bob Shepard next season "The manager Don Mattingly".

Edited October 18, 2007 by pcfdrfd700

[PVFD233 68]

Torre showed his true color, he could have made 8 million dollars next year w/making world series. If you take the 3 million out he is still the highest paid manager in baseball @ 5 Million. Now the Yankees were wrong in leaving him hanging for so long. Thats was wrong. Either way 2008 is going to be interesting. Give Donnie Baseball a shot.

[Remember585 815]

Two words:

Chuck Knoblach

[Jared1979 19]

Joe Torre is a great manager it is too bad that he decided not to stay with the yankees

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

Its too bad the Yankees canned him.......not

They offered him what was essentially a probation contract and for one of the best managers in baseball thats apparently unacceptable.....the Yankee Brass needs to take a good hard look at itself because it caused this problem.

No one other then Torre can manage a team of overpaid misfits with no chemistry.

Edited October 19, 2007 by bvfdjc316