Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Joe Torre resigned as Major League Baseball’s Executive Vice President for Baseball Operations to join a group seeking to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Torre, who was the Dodgers manager from 2008-2010 after leading the New York Yankees from 1996-2007, has aligned with Los Angeles real estate developer Rick Caruso.

“I have great confidence in Rick Caruso’s unique qualifications and his ability to lead a successful bid for the Los Angeles Dodgers,” Torre said in a statement. “In Rick I found a partner who understands consumers and fully appreciates that the Dodgers are a treasured LA institution.”

Caruso, 52, has thrived in retail. The Grove, his town square-like shopping center in Los Angeles, attracts 17 million shoppers a year and had few vacancies through the recession, he said in a 2010 interview.

He is developing a $550 million shopping and dining complex on the Las Vegas Strip for Caesars Entertainment Inc. between the Flamingo and Imperial Palace hotel casinos.

“Rick is very hands on, very creative and he runs the premier shopping center in one of the largest markets in America,” said Mickey Drexler, chief executive at J Crew Group Inc., which has a store at The Grove. “I think he’d make visiting Dodger Stadium a compelling experience.”

The Dodgers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June, and clashed with Baseball over whether it should be allowed to sell its future television rights. In November, MLB and the team struck a deal in which owner Frank McCourt would sell the team and Baseball would let the Dodgers try to sell the television rights early.- http://www.businessweek.com