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Gotham Baseball

I Still Believe In Wally Backman

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Wally Backman is no longer in the Mets organization after being forced out by GM Sandy Alderson, but he might be the best person to turn the Mets around. Photo By Danny Wild/MLB.com

As the New York Mets have become irrelevant, calls for Terry Collins to move on after the season have intensified. However, those opinions come from the New York fan base. The media that covers the team on a daily basis has been mostly silent on Collins’ future. Many have pushed the narrative that the injuries should give General Manager Sandy Alderson and Collins a pass for a disastrous 2017 season.

As you may have guessed, I’m not one of those people.

I’ve been supporting the idea that Wally Backman become the manager of the Mets for some time now and now I believe it more than ever.

When pressed by others who say, “Alderson will never hire Backman,” I simply say, “Well, Sandy can leave too.”

You can imagine the reaction I get, but here are some facts.

This was supposed to be an “all-in” season for the Mets, yet Alderson simply brought back the same team that lost the wild card game a year ago.  The starting rotation was supposed to be the reason the Mets were going to be dominant. However, given the fact that Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Steven Matz were all coming off some time of surgery in 2016, why this was a given from the front office remains a mystery. Especially when the other starters Noah Syndergaard (bone spurs) and Zach Wheeler (who hadn’t pitched in majors for two years following Tommy John surgery) were far from automatic. I’ve been told that Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman were acceptable depth, but then they let Lugo pitch in the World Baseball Classic, which led to Lugo’s missing two months of the season. Gsellman, who sidelined with a hamstring issue, had a terrible 6.16 ERA before his injury.

Even if the front office felt its rotation was fine, and didn’t need to store a few veterans in AAA just in case, the lack of any additions to the bullpen to make up for a staff that might need some support was criminal.

Collins and pitching coach Dan Warthen’s response to the early season injuries to the starting rotation was to overwork the bullpen to excess, which may or may not have led to season-ending shoulder injury to All-Star closer Jeurys Familia.  Familia, I might add, was also allowed to pitch in the WBC.

To this writer, it’s no coincidence that Backman leaving the organization has led to the team’s complete breakdown.

To some Mets insiders, Backman, who was either fired or quit as AAA manager last year after six seasons of developing the Mets’ best prospects, was the best evaluator of talent in the system

To his credit, Collins often spoke with Backman on which minor league players could help, and was denied on two occasions to add the former Mets second baseman to his coaching staff. Collins will never admit it on the record, but it’s clear not having Backman as a resource has hurt the team’s ability to reconstitute itself after suffering so many injuries. Alderson and his front office, which insiders agree did not like Backman’s style, failed to make sure this team would compete in 2017, and are as much to blame as Collins.

Bring Backman back, let him run this team, and who knows, maybe the first-ever Mets manager who won a World Series as a Mets player, can get to a World Series.

Maybe this time, they’ll actually win it.

 

 

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