Joe Torre spoke out about his decision to leave the New York Yankees Friday, calling management's one-year offer at a lower salary to return as manager of the club an insult.

The club offered Torre a one-year, $5 million contract, with an extra $3 million in incentives if the team advanced through each playoff round to the World Series. If the team made it that far, he would also have been eligible for another year as manager at $8 million. Torre salary's was $7.5 million this year,

"The fact that somebody is reducing your salary is just telling me they're not satisfied with what you're doing," Torre said. "There really was no negotiation involved. I was hoping there would be, but there wasn't."

So he declined. After 12 seasons as skipper, four of which ended with World Series titles and all of which featured a ticket to the postseason, Torre said the pay cut, the one-year commitment and the incentives in the offer were unacceptable. He said he knew exactly what was expected from him as a Yankee and no incentive-laden motivation was necessary for him.

Torre said he's "free to listen right now" to other opportunities.

Yankees management, meanwhile, including owner George Steinbrenner and his sons, has not zeroed in on a replacement, despite rampant speculation that bench coach Don Mattingly, YES Network broadcaster and former Yankee Joe Girardi, and St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa are top candidates.