Randy Levine: “We remain stunned.”

Randy Levine: “We remain stunned.”

Busy Friday night as Yankees team president Randy Levine just returned a call. Here are his thoughts on several topical subjects:

On Joe Torre being “insulted” by the contract offer: “There was no intent to insult Joe, we all have tremendous respect for him. He has had incentive clauses in previous contracts with the Yankees. We were all stunned and remain stunned that he turned the deal down.”

On selecting the next manager: “That will be (Brian) Cashman’s duty. He will bring the best candidate to ownership and they will decide whether that is who they want. George has always selected the manager, that hasn’t changed.”

On retaining Alex Rodriguez: “If he goes free agent, we are out. But we will be very competitive in trying to get him to stay. That much I can tell you. That was discussed in Tampa.”