Joe Girardi, Brian Cashman in dark about Mo

TAMPA, Fla. -- Joe Girardi figures Mariano Rivera will tell him when he's good and ready.

Brian Cashman isn't that patient.

Rivera created a frenzy of speculation Monday when, in two separate meetings with reporters, he dropped strong hints that this would be his final season and in doing so, saying he had made an "irrevocable" decision that he was not yet ready to share.

Monday night, the Yankees' general manager said he didn't know what that decision was, but he was interested enough Tuesday morning that he approached the closer.

"I said, 'Hey, man, I saw that stuff in the paper, you got anything for me?' " Cashman said. "He said, 'No, no, no.' I said, 'I'm not going to fish.' "

Girardi, who prefers not to think of LAM -- life after Mo -- left well enough alone, saying of Rivera or any veteran player contemplating retirement, "My thought is if they want to tell me, they'll tell me."

And of that decision, which Rivera said he has shared only with his family, Girardi said, sounding almost hopeful: "By not sharing it with anyone, and I don't know who he's shared it with, but without sharing it with us, that gives him the option to change his mind."

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Indeed, a day later, Rivera's comments were still the talk of camp, with David Robertson and Rafael Soriano -- the two likeliest players on the roster to inherit the closer job in 2013 if Rivera retires -- popular interview subjects.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Robertson said.

Soriano, coming off a difficult 2011 that included inflammation in his right elbow that landed him on the DL and season-long inconsistency, said he wasn't looking at 2013.

"It's too early for that," he said.

Girardi said, "I believe he can do it" of Robertson closing and "I don't think he's forgotten how to do that" of Soriano, a closer before joining the Yankees.

But, again, Girardi's not at the point of planning beyond Rivera as his closer and isn't in a rush to be.

"We'll deal with it when we have to," Girardi said.

Rivera, 42, is coming off a season in which he demonstrated no concession to age, recording 44 saves with a 1.91 ERA. Girardi said the prospect of this being Rivera's final season doesn't make him watch the closer with a more appreciative eye, as in appreciate it now because soon it will be gone.

"With Mo, you appreciate every year he's out there," Girardi said. "Obviously, we know one day it's going to come to an end. Do I feel in my mind this is going to be his last year? No I don't. I don't know if that's what he's going to do."

Girardi, Rivera's manager for his 500th save and his 600th last season, knows he is the rare manager whose job becomes, in some ways, less stressful in the ninth inning.

"When Mo comes in, you really feel like it's over," Girardi said. "And we know that's not going to happen 100 percent of the time, but over the years when Mariano came in, you felt really good about your chances. That's not always the case with every closer. I don't think we've ever worried about Mo . . . I've never really worried about Mo. And probably never will."

Until now.

As in the worrying possibility of this season being Rivera's last.

With Ken Davidoff