On the day Don Mattingly declined to accept the Yankees' curious offer of arbitration, Mattingly's agent Jim Krivacs said the former Yankees legend has no plans to play for any team in 1996, the strongest statement to date about Mattingly's status.

"He's not going to play with anybody in '96, not at this point," Krivacs said. "He wants to spend time with his family. He doesn't want to officially retire and then come out of it. Until he knows for sure, this is the way he'll handle it."

So while the Tim Raines situation and particularly the David Cone saga remain unsolved, Mattingly's status became considerably clearer with Krivacs' remarks. While Mattingly officially remains a free agent, eligible to sign with anybody except the Yankees for now, Krivacs said that was extremely unlikely. This is a clarification from four weeks ago, when Mattingly issued a murky statement that left the door open to the possibility of playing.

"If he was going to [play], he would have made a move with the Yankees," Krivacs said. "We're not pursuing anything. Donnie's a really stable guy and really consistent. There's no deep thing, no new wrinkle. When you sit down and look at it realistically, it doesn't take a genius to figure that he's probably not playing."

It remains unclear why the Yankees even offered Mattingly arbitration, although by doing so they can gain a draft choice if he changes his mind and signs elsewhere, a real longshot. They must have been quite confident he'd decline their offer since an acceptance obligates the Yankees to pay him at least $3.536 million (80 percent of his $4.42-million '95 salary). By Jon Heyman. STAFF WRITER

Copyright 1995, Newsday Inc.