Sloppy Reporting

Murray Chass of the New York Times criticizes Joe Torre for perceived hypocrisy, although his reasoning is slipshod at best.

In his interview with Costas, Torre expanded his views of the incentives.

“I don’t think incentives are necessary,” he said. “I’ve never needed to be motivated. Plus, in my contract, I get a million-dollar bonus if we do win the World Series. So that’s always been there. And, you know, as far as needing incentive to go ahead and win a ballgame, that I thought, I used the term insulting.”

Torre referred to a $1 million bonus for winning the World Series. He indeed had that in his last two contracts, which covered the last six years of his employment. In the 2002-4 contract, he was able to earn $200,000 for winning the division series, $300,000 for winning the league championship series and $500,000 for winning the World Series.

The 2005-7 contract eliminated the division series bonus but provided $400,000 for winning the league championship series and $600,000 for winning the World Series, the bonuses still adding to a maximum $1 million.

Obviously Torre did not object to those bonuses, did not reject them as insulting. He signed those contracts and readily accepted the incentives they offered. Even though the Yankees didn’t win the World Series in those six years, Torre earned $700,000 of a possible $3 million in the first contract but nothing in the second because the Yankees lost the division series each year.

Torre’s objection was that this time the Yankees told him that the incentives were to motivate them. In the past, they had been rewards for a job well done. Randy Levine even stated that this contract was a change to a performance-based model to motivate Joe. The incentives themselves were not what insulted Torre. It was the way in which they were presented.

We also don’t know why he was willing to discuss a one-year contract last spring but not accept one year now.

Yes, Torre was prepared to sign a one-year extension.

Torre went to Steve Swindal, who was then a general partner and a George Steinbrenner son-in-law in good standing, and General Manager Brian Cashman and told them he would like to manage the Yankees in the last year at Yankee Stadium.

Swindal, who had negotiated Torre’s existing $20.9 million contract ($6.7 million, $6.7 million, $7.5 million), said that idea was fine with him but would require Torre to take a pay cut. They were talking about a $4.5 million salary, apparently with no insulting incentives.

Joe has said that he did not want the stress of a lame duck year. That was the main reason he had an issue with a one year offer. Had he signed the deal he was negotiating with Swindal, he would have provided himself with more job security, taking away his lame duck status from the next season, 2007. The contract the Yankees offered last week would have given him a lame duck year in the next season, 2008.

Chass really did not think this article through. His points are only congent on the surface. They do not hold up to any analysis remotely in depth. He is normally a good writer, but he really laid an egg here.