Steinbrenner Makes No Changes -- Yet

Joe Torre was absent Sunday. Alex Rodriguez too. And the New York Yankees made no announcement about changing managers.

While several players and coaches packed up in a quiet clubhouse, Day 1 of what figures to be a wild off-season for the Yankees provided few definitive answers.

Torre still has his job, for now. Hours after New York was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs again, the New York Daily News reported Sunday that demanding owner George Steinbrenner probably would fire his longtime manager and replace him with old favorite Lou Piniella.

The Boss issued a pointed statement, calling the result “absolutely not acceptable” and “a sad failure.” But he had not yet consulted with Yankees executives about any change, at least not yet, a baseball official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity because no statements other than Steinbrenner’s were authorized.

Piniella, in San Francisco while preparing to call the American League Championship Series on Fox, told the network he hadn’t talked to the Yankees and was “stunned” by the report.

Torre, 66, has one year and $7 million left on his contract.