Yanks Offer Paycut, Torre Declines

Joe Torre has turned down a one-year deal from the New York Yankees. The team says they offered the manager $5 million for the 2008 campaign. Torre earned $7.5 million this season. The deal reportedly offered up to $3 million in incentives, and a $9 million option for 2009 should the Yankees win the 2008 AL pennant. The deal would have been the richest among big league managers. Lou Pinella is now the league's highest-paid skipper, raking in $3.5 million a year from the Cubs.

Don Mattingly is reportedly the top candidate to replace Torre, despite a report in the Star-Ledger claiming he didn't want the job. Mattingly's agent declines that notion. Mattingly served as Yankee bench coach in 2007 and hitting coach from 2004-2006. Owner George Steinbrenner was reportedly impressed with Mattingly's work on Torre's staff. Team announcer Michael Kay echoed that sentiment in a 2006 interview with the NY Post.

"From everything that I have heard the Yankees are absolutely blown away by how great Don Mattingly has been as the hitting coach, his work ethic and his level of preparedness," said Kay. "I think when Joe Torre leaves, the next manager will be Don Mattingly."

Mattingly played all 14 seasons of his major league career in pinstripes, and was named the tenth Yankee captain in franchise history Feb. 28, 1991. He won the AL batting title in 1984, MVP award in 1985, and was named an all-star on six different occasions. Mattingly is the Yankee career leader in sacrifice flies and intentional walks. He also holds the franchise single-season mark for hits (238) and doubles (53), both of which he set in 1986. He has never managed.

Ryan Maloney