Regrets, he has a few.
Mickey Callaway, whose fate for 2020 will be decided in the coming days, was asked Saturday if there is anything he could have done better this season. The Mets manager pointed to his blowup with a reporter in the clubhouse at Wrigley Field in June following a tough loss. Callaway and Jason Vargas were fined $10,000 apiece for the incident.
“We could all say that was a tough learning experience for me,” Callaway said before the Mets’ 3-0 win over the Braves at Citi Field. “I can choose how I want to react to any situation and I chose poorly. That was not a good decision on my part, because I have a choice on how I can react to things.”
Callaway also said he wouldn’t mind a do over on some of the conversations he had with players in which he could have communicated clearer.
“I put my heart and soul into this team, into this game every single day, and I believe in those players,” Callaway said. “I make unpopular decisions every day, whether it’s unpopular to [the media] or the players. Every decision I make is going to be unpopular to somebody, but I make decisions based on trying to win games and trying to keep these guys motivated to win as many games as they possibly can. In the end, our players played hard and continued to play hard for a reason. I’m proud of that.”
Any improvement for the Mets next season Callaway says will start with relief pitching.
“First and foremost we need to figure out our pen,” he said. “Our pen is the main ingredient that probably held us back to where we wanted to get this year.”
Mike Soroka will start for the Braves against Noah Syndergaard in the season finale. Soroka, a candidate for Rookie of the Year and Cy Young, is third in National League with a 2.60 ERA, behind Hyun-Jin Ryu and Jacob deGrom.