Despite my last post about Harvey showing durability, Matt Harvey has become a less of a competitor since. Having pitched 166 1/3 innings thus-far, The Dark Knight was supposed to be capped at 180 innings in a rehab year post Tommy John surgery. With the Mets being postseason contenders, the big question became: Would Harvey pitch in the postseason?
Harvey, who had already skipped a few starts to conserve his innings, decided not to have a civil conversation with the Mets, but instead, have his agent Scott Boras speak about the topic to the public, and said that Matt should not exceed 180 innings as prescribed by a doctor. This was the complete wrong approach. The Mets, Matt Harvey, and Scott Boras should have sat down for a private discussion.
Initially, Harvey expressed no disagreement in Boras's comments. Harvey received a rude awakening from the fans. He became the anti-Wilmer. As much as people love Wilmer Flores for crying on the field and showing that he wants to be a Met, People now extremely dislike Harvey. He presented himself as a lack of a competitor. The Mets are talking about being in the postseason for the first time in seven years, and Harvey is thinking about shutting it down? That is not the competitive Dark Knight that Mets fans knew in 2013.
Harvey throughout the season was against the 6 man rotation (which would have given him one extra day of rest before every start). Which leads everybody thinking: Why is he complaining now? Harvey did a terrible thing for himself as a Met. However now Harvey is trying to polish everything up and says "I will pitch in the playoffs." This is good news for Mets fans, however they still need to make it there! The Mets are only in first by four games going into a three game series against the second place Nationals.
Maybe Boras was making the right decision for his client, but he did not do it in the right way. This left Mets fans angry with Harvey, giving him a clear choice, which is to pitch in the playoffs. I think that this was the right call, who knows the next time that Matt Harvey will be thinking about pitching in October.
