Torre, Dodgers Agree to 3 Year Deal; More A-Rod; Schilling, Lowell Go Free Agency
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The media is reporting that Grady Little has resigned as manager of the L.A. Dodgers and that Joe Torre and the blue pinstripers have “agreed in principle to a three-year deal worth $14.5 million.” According to the NY Post report, Torre “could be introduced tomorrow, the same day the Yankees are holding a press conference to welcome Joe Girardi, Torre’s successor, at Yankee Stadium.”
But something smells in L.A. over Littles’ resignation and it’s called two-faced duplicity.
L.A. Times reporter T.J. Simers looks deeper;
Grady Little says he has his own personal reasons for resigning as Dodgers manager, and here’s hoping none of them involve his health or the health of anyone in his family.
GM Ned Colletti says he spent a good deal of time encouraging Little to remain on the job — Colletti apparently really good at multitasking — talking at the same time to Joe Girardi and Joe Torre about taking Little’s job.
“I wanted Grady Little back,” Colletti says on a conference call, no one asking if Colletti is going to be Pinocchio this Halloween.
Colletti says that had Little told him Tuesday he was going to remain on the job, the job would still be Little’s.
There’s also a published report out there that says Colletti had a deal in place to hire Girardi last Friday, the Yankees matching it and taking Girardi away from the Dodgers — saving Colletti the problem of making Little and Girardi baseball’s first co-managers.
Take Colletti at his word, all right, four weeks after he and Frank McCourt tell everyone Little will be back on the job…
Little says, “There’s a lot of belief I’ve been dealt an injustice here. That couldn’t be further from the truth,” but then he calls his resignation “a mutual resignation . . . just something that mutually happened, just something better for the organization.”
Listen to Colletti and Little speak, and maybe there are personal reasons beyond baseball that have Little stepping down — rendering Colletti’s encouragement useless.
But then maybe Little heard rumblings within baseball that Colletti was interested in hiring Girardi, as manager or manager-in-waiting.
Or maybe there was something in the fact the Dodgers had not given new contracts to Little’s coaches, leaving the door ajar for a new manager to bring in his own staff.
“It’s just something myself and family had talked about,” says Little, while declining to say whether the Dodgers have bought his silence with a contract buyout. “It’s not an easy decision, but it’s final. My plans are to play with my grandkids.”
No question that’s going to be more fun than spending time with the babies that occupy the Dodgers clubhouse, but all those years trying to make it to the big leagues, then the big chance in Boston, and heartbreak and another shot at redemption — only to just walk away?
“I have my personal reasons,” Little says.
Colletti and Little deny a published report they had a blowup at season’s end, the same report also having them not talking to each other for weeks.
Also according to the NY Post report, it appears that Torre may be bringing third base coach Larry Bowa and Don Mattingly with him to the Dodgers and, according to the NY Post article, Alex Rodriguez may just turn up in L.A. on the NL side as well.
One of the reasons Rodriguez opted out of the last three years on his Yankees contract was he wasn’t sure what Yankee life would be like without Torre’s calming presence in the clubhouse and dugout. In the Dodgers, Rodriguez will find a club in dire need of a jolt at the plate and in the stands.
And Yahoo sports’ Jeff Passan cites the Dodgers as the 2nd most likely place that A-Rod will end up for much the same reason.
Meanwhile, up in Beantown, as much as I’d like to see Mike Lowell in a Phillies uniform, his world series MVP award endears him to Red Sox management and fans alike, although Yahoo sports’ Steve Henson quotes Lowell as magnanimously saying;
“For us to come through and do what we thought we were capable of doing is unbelievable…. “We’ve got a lot of people to give credit to.”
It’s getting more and more unlikely that Boston would part with this cog.
But Curt Schilling’s situation may be a different story. He’s kept busy since winning the world series writing good-bye letters to a number of his teammates and indicating that there’s a ‘very realistic chance’ he’s done in Boston.
There are persistent rumors that the Phillies are interested in 1-year deal with a 1 year deal with the 40 year old Schilling. And according to Jason Stark, Phils’ GM Pat Gillick likes short contracts, the Phillies badly need pitching and “Schilling loves a good script.” Curt Schilling finishing out his career in Philly — a distinct possibility.
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