New York Mets Matt Harvey And Intertwined Futures
The New York Mets have a few questions on their pitching staff. How far they go next year may depend on how Matt Harvey performs.
With their signing of Yoenis Cespedes, the New York Mets have reached a crossroad in their recent experiment with team building. Because while Cespedes is a lock (barring injury) to put up Cespedes like numbers that will carry the offense, the Mets starting pitching remains as mysterious and volatile as ever. And no one is more intertwined with the fate of the Mets pitching staff in 2017 than Matt Harvey , who is coming back from his second season ending injury. For Harvey, his career hangs in the balance. And for the Mets, their season may hang in the balance as well.
Matt Harvey has literally (for Matt Harvey) disappeared off the face of the planet, and more importantly off the face of New York City. He has not been seen where we could usually find him on Page Six arm in arm with his latest girlfriend exiting a Manhattan club in the wee hours of the morning. Nor have we seen him front and center at a Knicks basketball game. We also haven’t seen him anywhere near the Mets clubhouse answering questions from reporters. Where has he been and what has he been up to.
The answer to that question may go a long way to determining not only the fate of his career, but the fate of the entire Mets season in 2017. Because either his agent, Scott Boras and others, has finally drummed some sense into Harvey. Or even better, Matt Harvey has finally drummed some sense into himself.
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Harvey’s Numbers Tell One Story…..
Matt Harvey, if you look at his career stats, is nothing more than a run of the mill major league starter with a .500 record next to his name (29-28). In March of next year, he will be 28 and no longer the young stud, The Dark Knight he was hyped up to be. He will not even be the player other teams are salivating over and watching as he draws ever closer to his free agent year in 2019. He’ll simply be the Mets Ace who returns to the field on Opening Day with a season record of 0-0 and a 0.000 ERA.
Because the Mets experienced so many injuries to their starters last season, it’s hard to gauge the exact impact of losing Harvey for the season last year. Would he have been the difference maker who went 17-9 if he were healthy. Or would he have simply “been there” with a 12-12 contribution? And would Noah Syndergaard still have been the choice of Terry Collins to start the one game shootout that eliminated the Mets from the postseason?
As with most things, the questions are easy. The answers, not so much. But the good thing about baseball is that everything is decided on the field. There are finite winners, losers, and numbers. And Matt Harvey will be given a requisite number of starts by the Mets to prove himself, just as they did last season until the bottom fell out.
But at the same time, the fate of both Harvey and the Mets season hangs in the balance and they can’t afford to wait forever for Matt Harvey to be Matt Harvey again.
But Plan B For Matt Harvey And The Mets
If the Mets are wise, they would already deciding on a Plan B in the event that Harvey either fails or gets injured again. And that plan might even include something as drastic as converting him to a closer to either supplement or replace Jeurys Familia , who was running on fumes last year and his performance at the end of the season showed it.
The idea of Harvey tossing up 96 mph fastballs with a occasional biting slider to four or five batters should be enticing to both he and the Mets. The Braves made the same move with John Smoltz based on team needs and he wound up in the Hall Of Fame.
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It’s only a possibility and it’s only Plan B. But for both Harvey and the Mets, there’s no time to waste. And those losses suffered in April count exactly the same as the ones in late September during the so-called “crunch time” when the season is winding down and on the line.