Lasorda to Stay With Dodgers : Baseball: After meeting with O’Malley, it is announced that he will continue as manager and Claire will remain as vice president.

Tom Lasorda has assured the Dodgers he will remain their manager in 1993, ending the organization’s fears that he would join the Giants if they moved from San Francisco to Tampa Bay.

Lasorda agreed to fulfill the final year of his contract Wednesday in the second day of organizational meetings with Peter O’Malley and Fred Claire.

Afterward, the Dodgers issued a release stating that Lasorda and Claire, vice president, would return next year in their current positions.

Speculation that Lasorda would join close friend Vince Piazza if Piazza was part of the new Tampa Bay ownership group was serious enough that O’Malley, the Dodgers’ president, would not comment on Lasorda’s future until after the two-day meetings.

“I talked to Tommy about almost everything during the season, but we had never discussed what I had been hearing about Tommy and another club,” O’Malley said. “I wanted to sit down and talk to him and see how he felt before I made any statements.”

O’Malley said it is now a “dead issue.”

“Tommy will manage the club (next) year,” O’Malley said. “We talked about it, and it is no longer an issue.”

Lasorda said that he told O’Malley: “I would fulfill the contract that I signed. I will fulfill my responsibility here.”

The speculation about Lasorda began Aug. 7, when Bob Lurie, owner of the Giants, agreed to sell the team to a group that included Piazza.

When Piazza’s son Mike, a catching prospect, was recalled from triple-A Albuquerque in September, the elder Piazza began spending much time with the Dodgers.

Sources say Lasorda would have been offered the job as manager-general manager with a three-year contract giving him total control.

Friends say that the power to build a team is something Lasorda has always desired.

O’Malley denied, however, that he persuaded Lasorda to stay by offering him a front-office position after the 1993 season, which is expected to be Lasorda’s final year.

The Dodgers probably didn’t need incentives to keep Lasorda because Piazza’s involvement in the Tampa Bay group has recently been questioned.

While Piazza is still legally a partner in the Tampa Bay group, his name was omitted from a recent list of partners submitted to major league baseball.

This revised list was submitted after the ownership committee expressed reservations about the size of Piazza’s out-of-state investments.

Confirmation of Piazza’s stake in the new group will apparently not be clarified until after the group is approved. Piazza could be forced to use legal means to protect his position.

Lasorda said his conversation with O’Malley was simple.

“He asked me if I was happy, and I said I was happy and wanted to come back,” Lasorda said. “It’s funny, but somebody in the office said they were glad I was back. I said, ‘Where the hell have I been? What did I do, die?’ ”

Claire, the target of much criticism after the Dodgers’ worst finish in 87 years, said the meetings with O’Malley and Lasorda signaled the start of the 1993 effort.

“There was a certain amount of speculation there, it was time to answer any and all questions, and move on,” Claire said.