Mickey Callaway responded Friday to the critics who said the Mets mishandled their 25-man roster during their recent road trip.
The Mets played a man short for the final four games of the trip. They opted not to put Steven Matz, who has radial nerve irritation in his left (pitching) elbow, on the injured list, hoping he could return before the 10 days he would have spent on the IL would have been up, rather than helping their bench by calling up Dominic Smith or a reliever.
But Callaway didn’t agree with the notion the Mets were hamstringing themselves, even though on Thursday, they put Matz on the IL after all, and brought back Smith, who has performed well this season in his role as a reserve.