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Torre Deal
Done, But Boss Is Mum
If this all works out for the Yankees, if
Jason Giambi and Steve Karsay team with Moises Alou to put
the 2001 American League champions back on top of baseball
next year, then George Steinbrenner will deservedly receive
a good deal of credit from the team's fans.
The Boss isn't as generous when it comes to giving credit to others. Even though Yankees manager Joe Torre signed a three-year extension last week that can pay him more than $18 million, Steinbrenner has yet to permit an announcement of the transaction. This odd development is taking place after The Boss made Torre - who has won four World Series titles and five American League pennants in his six years on the job - await virtually the entire 2001 regular season, the last year of his contract, before beginning bona fide discussions with him. Steinbrenner also refused to announce a three-year extension for general manager Brian Cashman, who wound up declaring the news himself. As for Karsay - the Flushing native who has agreed in principal to a four-year deal that will pay him about $20 million - he underwent a physical from the Yankees yesterday. As long as the Yankees don't find anything wrong with Karsay, they'll announce their first free-agent signing of the offseason as soon as today. They hoped to announce the Giambi signing this week as well, but it's not clear whether that announcement will happen. Giambi told friends on Tuesday that he has decided to sign with the Yankees, and he is supposed to be in New York by tomorrow. The Yankees have made an official offer to Giambi, something they don't do until they are sure they are going to sign someone. The final deal will likely be $118 million over seven years. Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane has said that the team has not and will not move off its six-year, $91-million offer (with deferred money) that it extended in spring training, which would eliminate the A's as a competitor in the Giambi sweepstakes. Beane, according to other team executives, has already begun his challenging quest for an offensive force to replace Giambi. The Yankees continue to talk with the veteran Alou, whom they would like to sign as a third free agent along with Karsay and Giambi. So Steinbrenner is good to Torre, in that he gives him a great chance to win every year. Yet before Torre actually gets on the field, he must wade his way through much Steinbrenner-generated nonsense. In the early days of 2001 spring training, Steinbrenner reminded reporters that three other teams had fired Torre before he became "a genius" with his Yankees. He asserted that it was the entire organization, not just Torre, that had put together this dynasty. The two men went months without discussing Torre's lame-duck status, even though the manager had told his boss in November 2000 that he was interested in managing beyond 2001. By the first round of the American League Championship Series, Torre had agreed in principle to a three-year deal that will pay him a guaranteed $16 million. The 61-year-old can earn another $2 million with incentives concerning the Yankees' home attendance and the number of division titles, pennants and World Series they win. Still, however, Steinbrenner made Torre sweat the small stuff. Whereas the two New York icons had personally negotiated their previous three deals, this time The Boss assigned team president Randy Levine to handle the contract - which, in turn, forced Torre to call in his agent, Bob Rosen, to finalize the details. The whole chain of events is quite similar to how Steinbrenner dealt with Derek Jeter last offseason. Jeter had agreed to a 10-year, $189-million deal on Feb. 2. The team waited until Feb. 9 to announce it, via a telephone conference, even though the Tampa resident Jeter had been in New York the previous weekend. Now, apparently, Steinbrenner doesn't want to magnify the fact that he has committed so much to Torre. Even though, as in the Jeter deal, no one disputes that Torre is worthy of the commitment. The Yankees did make one announcement yesterday, as they named 44-year-old Jean Afterman their new assistant general manager. She worked at KDN Sports, Inc., an agency that represents current Yankee Alfonso Soriano and former Yankee Hideki Irabu. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Copyright © 2001, Newsday, Inc. |
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