Jim Leyritz claims he staged a coup to avoid being traded to the Red Sox near the end of his career.
Leyritz, a legendary postseason hero of the Yankees’ 1990s dynasty, Outkick’s “Hot Mic” by Jonathan Hatton and Chad Withrow He spoke about his experience with the MLB trade deadline on Tuesday.
He revealed that he once called an infuriated Yankees owner, the late George Steinbrenner, to ask him to intervene to block an impending trade to Boston.
“Yeah, I was that guy from 1995 and 1996 onwards when I was with the Yankees,” Leyritz, now 60, said of being a trade target for four consecutive seasons from 1997-2000.
“All of a sudden I was playing for a team that wasn’t in the playoffs. I got traded to a team that was always in the playoffs. There were a lot of periods the last three or four years where I was pretty much packing up on July 12th. I was just wondering where I was going to end up because I was going to end up somewhere. It’s not easy.”
He then talked about playing for the Red Sox for part of the 1998 season and not wanting to return when he was with the Padres around the 1999 trade deadline.
“I was playing in San Diego and I got a call. It was 1999 and I was in Las Vegas rehabbing, coming back from a broken wrist. I got a call and all of a sudden they said, ‘Hey, you’re getting traded to the Boston Red Sox,'” Leyritz said.
“And I said, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, please.’ I don’t want to go back to the Red Sox. And they said, ‘Well, we need to trade you within the next day or two. We’ll give you 24 hours to think about something else.'”
“I called Debbie Nicolosi, George Steinbrenner’s secretary. I said, ‘Debbie, tell George I’m being traded back to Boston.’ She said, ‘No, I’m not going to Boston. I’m coming here.’ Within 24 hours, I was traded back to the New York Yankees. That would definitely be considered cheating, but it wasn’t punished at the time.”
At the time of the trade, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said the deal came about thanks to the support of then-manager Joe Torre.
