Hours after telling ESPN radio that he offered to quit in the wake of the spring training firestorm his controversial book, “Perfect I’m Not,” caused, David Wells decided the issue wasn’t worth talking about yesterday afternoon.
“I am not going to get into that with you guys,” Wells said prior to last night’s Devil Rays-Yankees game being washed out at the Stadium.
According to Joe Torre and Brian Cashman, Wells was so distraught over the commotion caused by the release of the book’s gallies that he went to them prior to an exhibition start against the Phillies in Clearwater on Feb. 28 and offered to retire because of the stir he had caused in the clubhouse. As reported later in The Post, Wells also told the Yanks’ brass that he would waive his no-trade clause if that would be best for the team.
“My intention was not to cause those kind of problems,” Wells said on the radio. “I figured I would walk away, see you later and go out on a sour note.”
Knowing that if Wells retired he wouldn’t be able to legally pitch again for a year, Cashman told the left-hander to go home and talk about it with his family before taking such a drastic measure. When Wells, who pitched two miserable innings before that spring training game was rained out, returned to camp the next day, he said nothing of quitting. Nor has the issue been raised again.
While it’s hard to believe Wells was going to walk away from a guaranteed $3 million salary and a chance to bag another $4 million in incentives, Cashman and Torre never doubted his sincerity about quitting. Wells also stands to collect a $1 million buyout from the Yankees after this season, because they aren’t expected to pick up a $6 million option.
“I told him to relax, that it was an emotional time for him,” Cashman said. “He sincerely felt awful and bad.”
Cashman said two other Yankee players have come to him during his six years as GM and threatened to quit. He wouldn’t say who they were, but neither carried through on the threat. Torre said he has had three players make the same threat, but only named former Cardinal Brian Jordan, who was upset about being sent to the minors and threatened to go back to the NFL.
Torre’s advice to Wells was similar to what Cashman told the pitcher.
“I told him not to make that decision at that time,” Torre said of Wells, who has pitched brilliantly in his first two starts and is 2-0. “If he still wanted to do it . . . we would talk about it. It’s never as dark as it appears things first start happening.”
*
Mariano Rivera’s next step back from the DL is a bullpen session today in Tampa. If that goes well, he could throw batting practice and work an inning in an extended spring training game next week. “It’s getting better,” Rivera said yesterday after throwing off flat ground for 10 minutes and going through agility drills. He isn’t expected back until the end of the month.
Steve Karsay, out with a sore right shoulder, made 70 throws off flat ground. He resumed his throwing program on Wednesday and could return sometime next month.
Torre believes Derek Jeter is a week away from picking up a bat. “Even then I don’t know what he will do with it because he won’t be taking BP for a while,” Torre said.
Neither team made a switch in their rotation after last night’s postponement. Jeff Weaver goes today for the Yanks against lefty Joe Kennedy. Last night’s tilt will be made up as part of a day/night doubleheader on June 17.
