Bad News for Master Bates

According to the New York Post, Former Met Wally Backman, whose off-the-field problems cost him the Arizona managing job just days after he was hired last winter, said he called Minaya recently to ask about the Mets' managerial vacancy at Double-A. "I'd love to come back to the Mets. They were my first organization," Backman said. "But I think Omar indicated that I wasn't going to get the job. That's what I took out of it."