One year?

Joe Torre has received some bad press for rejecting the offer from the New York Yankees. I'm not going to pile on at this point because I don't know why he's not sticking around the Bronx. If Torre declined the offer to come back because his base salary was reduced to $5 million ... well, I guess it's his call, but I think the monetary compensation in the contract offer was actually quite fair. A playoff appearance would have earned him an additional million. If he guided the Yanks to the World Series, he'd make $8 million total.

Initially, I thought maybe the Yankees didn't want to bring Torre back. At this point, I think they wanted him for one more year. It is pretty clear that they don't have a clear replacement for Torre. If the Yankees missed the playoffs next year or flamed out early again, it would be easier to justify not bringing Torre back. Plus, at that point, they probably wouldn't also be dealing with as many potential exits by players (Posada, Rivera, A-Rod, Abreu, Pettitte, Clemens). Bringing Torre back for another year might allow you to get some of those guys back more easily (for less money) than will now be the case.

But, I think the bigger problem was that Torre saw the offer for what it was. It was an audition, after 12 years of service. If he produced the desired results, he'd be back guaranteed ... but what are the chances the Yankees will go deep into the playoffs next year? Plus, Torre would be subjected to all the speculation (maybe more) than he had to deal with this season. One way or another, the Yankee brass orchestrated Torre's exit, even if it didn't come exactly the way they had planned.