When news came out Friday night that Matt Harvey was going to speak about his agent’s comments regarding his innings limits, I thought to myself “Yeah! It’s on now. Matt Harvey is going to remind his agent whose world this is and who is living in it. This is going to be the best speech since William Wallace, baby! Mets Gu Bra! Mets Gu Bra!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEOOZDbMrgE
Instead, we got this:
“I’m gonna always play. But like I said … I hired Dr. Andrews to do my surgery and I hired Scott for a reason and that’s to prolong my career, and put me in the best possible position. Moving forward with that I have one start in mind and that’s Tuesday … For me the biggest thing is, if I let any of the outside distractions get in the way then I’m not doing my job to get us to October anyways … For me it’s keeping my head down and focusing on Tuesday.”
I’ll also note that when specifically asked if he could reassure Mets fans that he was going to pitch in the postseason, all he would say, for the millionth time, was that he was focused on Tuesday.
Tuesday had better be a gem.
Here’s another quote from that link:
Harvey said Saturday that his surgeon, noted orthopedist Dr. James Andrews, has advised him not to exceed 180 innings this year.
Juxtapose that with what he said on a FOX Sports podcast in August (the 14th, so less than a month ago), in response to whether the Mets have an innings limit this season:
“I have no idea. There’s a lot of things that go into that question. I think the doctors, my agent, [GM] Sandy Alderson have all talked about it. They’re going to go over what’s best, and, obviously, as a player you gotta keep your head down and keep focused and keep with your task at hand. If I start worrying about that and it gets in my head, then my performance may suffer.”
So James Andrews advised him not to go past 180 innings … in the last three weeks? Come to think of it, the same guy who wanted to pitch meaningless baseball last September and the same guy that wanted to throw the six man rotation … crafted with him in mind … out the window now wants to listen to the advice of his doctors and shut down before the playoffs? Hmmmmmm …
Make no mistake about this. This is Scott Boras. This is 99 44/100% Scott Boras. Matt Harvey never, ever took this line of thought. But Boras comes out publicly with his bitching on Friday (which was completely unnecessary) and now Harvey, in a pre-determined media session, replies with the vaguest quotes this side of Qualcomm? This has Boras written all over it.
Freudian slip? https://t.co/gDhf1acCxR
— Metstradamus (@Metstradamus) September 6, 2015
That’s what Scott…err…I mean Dr. Andrews…(damn I screwed up this whole thing with that slip didn’t I?) said.
— Devon (@DevOnSports) September 6, 2015
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But … Matt Harvey doesn’t have to listen to him. Harvey could have had some balls and put his foot down on all this. Hell, he could have said pretty much the same thing he did today and just threw in something like “we’re going to be careful with this, but I’ll do everything I’m asked of if it means pitching for the Mets in the playoffs.” That’s it. But he hid behind his agent. And while I want to believe the best will come from this … and it still might … that media session sure as hell seemed like a precursor to the disappearance of Matt Harvey before October, doesn’t it.
I guess we should have known that the Dark Knight might be in it for himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYsL-hUAR-A
I’ll be honest here. I’m pissed. I’m pissed because I’ve defended Matt Harvey from here to kingdom come to certain people. And those people have already come at me with “trade him now”. The ones who haven’t chirped, I know it’s coming. And right now it’s hard to defend it. I’m pissed because the postseason we’ve all been dreaming of since these pitchers came up and tantalized our senses could now go to complete shit (and if the Mets face the Dodgers without Harvey, it most certainly will go there), especially since there’s no guarantees about anything next season with Yoenis Cespedes probably leaving for a huge deal somewhere else. I’m pissed because while I know nothing about Matt Harvey the private human being, what I discerned about the public persona of Matt Harvey could turn out to be a crock.
(And as an aside: No matter what happens, Matt Harvey isn’t getting traded this off-season. Past regimes might have done it, but I highly doubt that Sandy Alderson, no matter how pissed he might be, would trade Harvey out of pettiness just to get rid of him. Not off a season marked by reduced innings and one that might not last until the end of the season. That’s not the season you want to trade anybody off of. If he goes, the watch starts after 2016. Remember, he’s still under the Mets control for three more years. Rushing to trade him because of this at the expense of a bigger return after 2016 would be mighty stupid.)
But as I usually say in situations like this, forget about me. Forget about the rest of the fans. Because we usually have our hearts broken and get screwed in situations like this. I lived through Darryl Strawberry leaving for Los Angeles, Mike Hampton leaving for Colorado, and Doc Gooden and David Cone pitching no-hitters for the Yankees. I’m used to this nonsense. It happened before, and to the fans not old enough to remember any of the above, get ready because as some point, it’ll happen again. And yes, it might happen with Harvey. But to you, Matt Harvey, I say this: What are you going to tell your teammates if you do shut it down? How are you going to break it to the group of people that you break bread with every day … share a clubhouse with … fought to stay in New York for and rehab with … when you decide that he wouldn’t be willing to trade all the days, from today until that day he signs that big contract for that one chance … just one chance … at a World Series? How do you look them in the eye and tell them that the chance … a chance that can’t be measured by a percentage because nobody knows what that chance is … that 20 extra innings will ruin your chance at a mega contract instead of just a huge contract outweighs the chance of being a hero in New York and cementing that chance of a mega contract?
(I mean, what’s the point of baseball? Is it to win the World Series? Or is it simply to make a lot of money? What are we, as fans, rooting for here? Is it simply for more of our money to end up in your pocket? Is that what we’re cheering for in the end?)
Oh sure, his teammates would take the public non-controversial line of “Matt Harvey is our friend and we support him unconditionally”. But you know that Andy Martino column would hit around February 13th which will say “One Mets official said that many Mets were upset that Harvey bailed out on them.” You know it’s coming. And if Harvey can live with that, then bless him. However there’s still time to change the ending of this story. There’s still time to change your standing in the clubhouse, in the front office, and among the fans … in that order. There’s only one person that can do that, Matt. It’s you. So what do you want to do? Do you want to play it cautious and worry about that big pay day? Do you want to make today’s media session the narrative instead of merely a Qualcomm-type misstep? Do you want to run and live? For a while? Or do you want to fight … and take the chance that your elbow ligament might die for the chance at true glory? You have one chance, Matt.
Just one chance.
Mets Gu Bra.
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