In what would be a crippling blow to the Yankees, Mel Stottlemyre is leaning toward retirement and could inform the club of his decision today.
Stottlemyre, 62, is the only pitching coach Joe Torre has had since taking over the Yankees in 1996. Torre, who wanted the highly respected Stottlemyre back, has leaned heavily on Stottlemyre over the past nine seasons.
Neil Allen, a former Met and Yankee pitcher who has been the pitching coach for the last two seasons at Columbus (Triple-A), is in line to replace Stottlemyre.
“I wouldn’t be able to comment on that because we are working through who will be on the staff and who won’t,” GM Brian Cashman said when asked about Stottlemyre retiring and Allen taking over.
Allen, 46, who has been in the Yankee organization for the past three years and pitched for Torre with the Mets, will be facing a daunting challenge of working with a revamped rotation that likely won’t include Kevin Brown and may not house Javier Vazquez.
Since Stottlemyre told friends in baseball he was going to retire if the Yankees won the World Series, it was assumed he was coming back after the Yankees were the first team to flush a 3-0 lead to the Red Sox in the ALCS.
However, almost two weeks away from the craziness of the Yankees’ universe led to Stottlemyre deciding retiring was a better option than returning to The Bronx. It’s not known what the deciding factor was for Stottlemyre, but his health has been good and he had a positive checkup recently. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood plasma, in 2000.
It is known that his wife, Jean, has expressed her desire to have her husband step down in recent years.
Stottlemyre’s defection comes just days before Willie Randolph, Torre’s bench coach, is expected to be announced as the new Mets manager. Who replaces Randolph is a good question.
As for what Torre’s pitching staff will look like in spring training, that will become clearer in the next six weeks. Pedro Martinez and David Wells filed for free agency yesterday along with Orlando Hernandez. They join Carl Pavano, who is expected to stay with the Marlins, and Eric Milton. Trades for Randy Johnson, Ben Sheets and Tim Hudson are possibilities.
Al Leiter is expected to file conditionally for free agency later this week as insurance to the Mets not picking up a $10 million option or not being able to work out a one-year deal with the 39-year-old lefty, who pitched for the Yankees in the 1980s and wouldn’t rule out a return.
As for Leiter, his agent explained yesterday a report saying Leiter and the Mets were close to a deal wasn’t true.
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The first ever Spalding Baseball Man of the Year Award will be given to Randolph for his work with Juvenile Diabetes.
