When you hit .320 for a World Series champion, fans are going to love to you forever. Former Mets second baseman Wally Backman, who did indeed hit .320 for their 1986 title team, has long been considered a potential manager by a rather vocal portion of the team's fan base.
Rather than give him a chance to join the big-league staff in some capacity, the Mets fired Backman as manager of their Triple-A affiliate on Monday, GM Sandy Alderson confirmed. Backman had been the team's Triple-A manager since 2013. A "pattern of defiance" as the reason for his dismissal.
Heard Mets cited a pattern of defiance in firing Wally Backman.
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) September 12, 2016
Backman has been a long-simmering source of tension regarding player development. One person in org described him as "doing his own thing."
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) September 12, 2016
Organization cited Backman not using Nimmo at leadoff, sitting Conforto against lefties.
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) September 12, 2016
Yep, that's grounds for termination for a Triple-A manager. When you go against the organization's orders and handle top prospects your own way, you're not going to get to keep your job. Not with the amount of money teams invest in young players these days.
Keep in mind this goes beyond Brandon Nimmo not hitting leadoff or Michael Conforto not facing lefties. Backman has had several run-ins with the front office in recent years. The Jack Leathersich incident is pretty infamous among diehard Mets fans and caused Backman to come under fire.
Leathersich, a lefty relief prospect, was with the Mets in May and June of last season, working mostly left-on-left matchup situations. That limited him to one or two batters a game and often no more than 10-12 pitches. In his first game after being sent down, Backman left in Leathersich to throw 57 pitches in two high-stress innings. That was Leathersich's last outing of 2015 and shortly thereafter he underwent Tommy John surgery.
Being a fan favorite has -- or should have, anyway -- little impact on the team's decision making. Backman was a detriment to the development of the Mets' top prospects at the highest level of the minors. That's simply unacceptable. Everyone's on the same team. The Triple-A manager shouldn't be going in his own direction.
I'm sure there are still many Mets fans out there who love Backman and want to see him managing the team instead of Terry Collins. I get that part of fandom. But based on his behavior in Triple-A, Backman had no business being in a position of authority with the Mets.
