Torre Will Be Much Easier To Replace Than A-Rod

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Sometimes in life you’re done with a job but can’t bring yourself to quit. Maybe you need the job, or the thought of looking for another position is too daunting. Rather than tender your resignation, you quit in your mind.Your work ethic slips a bit. You indulge in a few acts of petty insubordination. Without admitting it, you’re hoping that your employer will make the decision for you.

Managers do this all the time. In 1978, it was Billy Martin insisting that reporters quote him after he said of Reggie Jackson and George Steinbrenner, “One’s a born liar and the other’s convicted.” In 1968, Eddie Stanky of the White Sox batted pitcher Gary Peters sixth, ahead of stalwarts like Luis Aparicio, just to show what he thought of their hitting. Both managers got what they wanted and were relieved.

For Joe Torre, the hint that he’s rehearsing for retirement was the way he handled Alex Rodriguez throughout the season and particularly in the playoffs. First, apparently bored with answering constant A-Rod questions in his preand post-game press briefings and frustrated with a severe late-August slump, decided to sanction the swift-boating of his own third baseman in the pages of Sports Illustrated. The SI story waited like a time bomb for Rodriguez to emerge from his slump and regain his confidence, which he rapidly did, waited until just before the post-season when the Yankees needed Rodriguez, the most versatile, reliable slugger on their roster, to hit.

With this helpful stab in the back, Rodriguez was “motivated” right back into his slump.

Not satisfied, Torre then jerked the future Hall of Famer up and down the lineup throughout the short series. Where a player hits over the course of four games isn’t all that important, but the psychological impact of those moves is. Rather than leave Rodriguez alone, and minimize the stress on his player, Torre did everything he could to make him the story.

This was poor judgment, and not necessarily because it hurt the Yankees in the series. There is no way of knowing if it did. Rodriguez was the team’s primary cleanup hitter this year, batting in that slot 117 times. Had Torre left him there he still might not have turned into Mr. October. That’s something we can never know. However, Torre’s lineup changes not only minimized that possibility, but will have reverberations for 2007. He likely made it impossible for both he and Rodriguez to return to the Yankees next year.

In tacitly endorsing the Jason Giambi-Derek Jeter A-Rod clubhouse freeze-out, in embarrassing the twotime MVP, Torre likely burned his bridges with Rodriguez. In doing so, he compromised the one thing that made him useful to the Yankees. Torre is a poor strategist, particularly when it comes to handling his pitching staff. That’s not why he’s been with the Yankees for 11 years. It was his ability to take a random collection of millionaires and show them how to block out the owner, block out the press, and become a cohesive, professional unit. That day is done.

Of course, the Yankees could always try to deal Rodriguez. Without his apparent bete noir, Torre’s gravitas might reassert itself. That’s a doubtful proposition, and one with misplaced priorities. Whatever contribution a manager makes to a team’s won-lost record, it’s around the margins. A skipper can pull out a win with a savvy call here, or snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by, say, letting an exhausted Mike Mussina pitch to Curtis Granderson with two lefties waiting in the pen. On the whole, though, the game is going to be decided with hits and home runs and strikeouts, not managerial wizardry.

Contrary to press-fostered public opinion, Rodriguez remains one of the best players in baseball. His defensive woes suggest that he’ll never go back to shortstop, but he can still hit with any hot corner man in the game. Even taking for granted Rodriguez’s supposed clutch failures, which make up a very small part of his overall offensive production, the Yankees would see a huge drop-off in production at third with Rodriguez gone.

Rodriguez generated over 100 runs of offense for the Yankees this year. There is no candidate to replace him in the Yankees farm system. There is no third baseman even half as good on the free agent market this year. The teams with comparable players — the Marlins with Miguel Cabrera, the Mets with David Wright — have younger, cheaper versions, and thus have no incentive to trade.

An alternative scenario would have the Yankees receiving some kind of package for Rodriguez, say a first baseman and a starting pitcher. They would absorb an offensive hit at third base, but make up for it with improved production at first and fewer runs allowed on the mound. That too seems unlikely. Given Rodriguez’s salary, even a team like the Dodgers or the Angels, both of which might be eager to acquire a star third baseman, would have little motivation to both absorb the financial burden of paying Rodriguez but also give away top talent. In today’s game, a team will take on salary or give away prospects, but not both.

Even if Brian Cashman caught Ned Colletti or Bill Stoneman in an unlikely moment of drunken irresponsibility, it’s doubtful that their best package would entirely mitigate the loss of Rodriguez.

In the final accounting it will be far less damaging for the Yankees to hire a manager who will try to get the best out of Rodriguez instead of isolating him, who will not have so much blind love for Derek Jeter that he will ask his socalled captain to stop giving his teammate the cold shoulder. In short, they need a manager who is the man that Joe Torre used to be.

Torre has put the Yankees in a him-or-me situation. Torre has been a great manager for the Yankees, a Hall of Fame manager, but no manager is as valuable as a star.

Mr. Goldman writes the Pinstriped Bible for www.yesnetwork.com and is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel.


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