MLB REPORT: Reports: Yankees’ Mussina to retire

Desperate for starting pitchers, the New York Yankees expect to enter next season without 20-game winner Mike Mussina.

FoxSports.com and ESPN.com reported Wednesday that Mussina intends to retire and will make the move official this week. In the reports, unidentified major league sources were cited.

Mussina, who turns 40 next month, would become the first pitcher to call it quits following a 20-win season since Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax in 1966.

“I have not talked to him lately,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Wednesday evening at a Manhattan charity event to benefit his Catch 25 Foundation and Alzheimer’s research. “He had led me to believe that that’s what was going to happen at the end of the year. I wasn’t quite sure in a sense that I believed him because sometimes when you get away from it you really miss it.”

Seattle fills post with A’s coach

DonWakamatsu became the first Asian-American manager in major league baseball history when he was hired Wednesday by the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners’ 14th manager, Wakamatsu was bench coach for the Oakland Athletics last season. Before that he spent five years with the Texas Rangers.

The 45-year-old Wakamatsu will be the fifth manager in Seattle since the departure of Lou Piniella after the 2002 season. The Mariners have cycled through Bob Melvin, Mike Hargrove, John McLaren and Jim Riggleman since Piniella left, none of the four approaching Piniella’s success.

The Mariners lost 101 games this season, their most since 1983, and became the first team to lose 100 with a $100 million payroll.

Royals, Red Sox pull off Crisp deal

The Kansas City Royals picked up the leadoff hitter they had been seeking, acquiring center fielder Coco Crisp from the Boston Red Sox for reliever Ramon Ramirez.

Kansas City was 12th among 14 AL teams in runs last season and added power last month, obtaining first baseman Mike Jacobs from Florida.

The 29-year-old, switch-hitting Crisp split time with rookie Jacoby Ellsbury in center last season, hitting .283 with seven homers and 41 RBIs in 98 games.