Joe Torre talking with ‘four or five’ prospective Dodgers bidders

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Joe Torre said he has talked to ‘four or five’ prospective bidders for the Dodgers but has not joined any group in pursuit of the team.

‘I have no commitment to anybody,’ Torre said Monday at baseball’s winter meetings.

Torre declined to identify any of the prospective bidders but said none has given him a deadline to decide. One of the prospective buyers previously has been identified as real estate developer and potential mayoral candidate Rick Caruso.

Torre said he would resign from his position as baseball’s executive vice president of baseball operations upon joining a group, without waiting to see if the group were to win the bidding.

Torre called the opportunity to join a prospective ownership group ‘intriguing.’ He managed the Dodgers from 2008 to 2010, after a 12-year run with the New York Yankees that included four World Series championships.

He said he had no interest in joining a group that wanted him to be the face of a bid, rather than wanting him to play a prominent role in the operation of the Dodgers.

‘It’s like this job,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to go somewhere just because I won four World Series. I want to feel I can do something. It would have to be something substantial.’

— Bill Shaikin in Dallas