Torre is trying to spin this like a Washington insider. Tyler Kepner has a great blog post about this.  All this stuff about “A-Fraud” being something that was said ”in front of A-Rod” is, as Kepner points out, completely opposite of what is written in the book:

Here is the actual passage, as written by Torre and Tom Verducci: “Back in 2004, at first Rodriguez did his best to try to fit into the Yankee culture – his cloying, B-grade actor best. He slathered on the polish. People in the clubhouse, including teammates and support personnel, were calling him ‘A-Fraud’ behind his back.”

Behind his back is the literal opposite of “in front of him.” Torre says he read the book numerous times before publication. Surely he is aware of this important difference.

As noted by Kepner above, Torre read the book.  He’s said he read it many times in the interviews and that he took material out.   This just further cements my opinion, that if Torre didn’t like you – that was it.