Although I understand why Torre is still pissed off by the way his final negotiations with the team were handled, I can't really get too upset with the way Cashman comported himself either. At the end of the 2007 season, it was an almost foregone conclusion that Torre was on his way out. It wouldn't have mattered if Derek Jeter, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte and Cashman had all asked the Steinbrenners to keep Torre. George, Hal and Hank wanted to go in a new direction. Hence the offer Torre could refuse.
In an ideal situation, Cashman, who knew better than anyone that the organization wanted to go in a different direction, would have spoken up and fought for Torre. As Verducci's and Torre's excerpt demonstrates, however, he did not. Cashman most likely wanted a new manager too. But even if he didn't particularly have Torre's back, I don't think anyone can say that he stabbed Torre there either. Granted, Cashman reportedly never relayed Torre's complicated two-year proposal to the Steinbrenners before the fateful last meeting down in Tampa, but does anyone, including Torre, really think it would have made a difference in the end?
Torre's oddly timed postmortem of his final days with the Yankees will never take away from his many accomplishments as manager, which he and Verducci describe throughout the rest of the book. A part of me, though, can't help but wish that Torre would have kept the details of his negotiations--and what occurred inside his clubhouse--to himself.
