The NY Post’s George King reports that longtime Yankee pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre might be ready to hang up the spikes. Presumably his own, though it would be polite to hang up any others he finds laying around.

In what would be a crippling blow to the Yankees, Mel Stottlemyre is leaning toward retirement and could inform the club of his decision today.

Stottlemyre, 62, is the only pitching coach Joe Torre has had since taking over the Yankees in 1996. Torre, who wanted the highly respected Stottlemyre back, has leaned heavily on Stottlemyre over the past nine seasons.

Neil Allen, a former Met and Yankee pitcher who has been the pitching coach for the last two seasons at Columbus (Triple-A), is in line to replace Stottlemyre.

“I wouldn’t be able to comment on that because we are working through who will be on the staff and who won’t,” GM Brian Cashman said when asked about Stottlemyre retiring and Allen taking over.

Allen, 46, who has been in the Yankee organization for the past three years and pitched for Torre with the Mets, will be facing a daunting challenge of working with a revamped rotation that likely won’t include Kevin Brown and may not house Javier Vazquez.