Wally Backman says disrespect the reason he left Mets organization

Wally Backman is

n’t leaving the New York Mets organization quietly. Backman left his post as the manager of the Mets’ Triple-A team in Las Vegas on Monday and it didn’t take long for him to get into exactly what went down and what bothered him about it.

Backman joined Mike Francesa on WFAN in New York on Tuesday afternoon and let it fly. Off the top, after reiterating that he had resigned and not been fired, he addressed the idea that he had been insubordinate by ignoring instructions from Mets’ front office.

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He specifically mentions instances involving Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo that he believes were held against him. The apparent issue is that Backman didn’t play Conforto enough because he was sitting the young outfielder against left-handed pitching. Backman says Conforto started in 31 of 33 games while in Las Vegas and was used as a pinch-hitter in the other two games.

With Nimmo, the rub was that Backman didn’t have him high enough in the order. To that, Backman says Nimmo batted first or second in 84 of 90 games this season.

Just based on those two situations and how they appear to have played out, it’s no real surprise Backman would feel disrespected by his bosses:

Backman’s connections to the Mets goes way back. He was a popular figure on the 1986 team that won the World Series and he’s been with the organization as a minor-league manager since 2009. While he worked his way up from Single-A to Triple-A despite a combative relationship with general manager Sandy Alderson, the jump to the major leagues to be the manager or a part of his friend Terry Collins’ staff – something a segment of Mets fans would have loved to see – isn’t going to happen. Sometimes it’s best for both sides to move on and it sounds like Backman definitely has, saying he’s already in the process of reaching out to other teams about working for them at the big-league level.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr