The Players’ Tribune New York City Bureau Chief and Mets starting pitcher Matt Harvey has elaborated, sort of, on the innings limit ordeal that so shook the foundation of Mets fandom.
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As Matt Harvey skulked around the Mets clubhouse Sunday, a Mets source told that the club’s expectation continues to be that Harvey will pitch in the playoffs this season. “That’s to prolong my career and get in the best possible position moving forward”. “He thinks we’ll have selective amnesia for all the times he scoffed at being held back from taking his turn as the Alpha-est Alpha male of all?” There’s still a plan in place to limit his innings. But the 180 innings cap is not new.
Boston’s farm system is loaded with talent, but most of their top prospects are years away from contributing. Currently, the Mets are not favored to win the World Series. “That’s their decision. That’s what they decided to do”. All he, or anyone else, can do, is manage risk. “Since the trades, they’ve been playing so well and the team effort has been overshadowed by what I think is nonsense”. Dave Dombrowski may be more willing to part with them, especially since Jackie Bradley’s emergence and Christian Vazquez’s eventual return could make them slightly more expendable. For one, players presently are paid significantly larger sums of money and are much bigger assets as individuals to their teams than they were 30 years ago. Harvey has thrown 166 1-3 so far. Harvey will irreparably ruin his reputation if he willingly sits down for the postseason, establishing himself not as a hero but as a total Joker. Harvey has thrown 1661⁄3 so far.
Yet the Mets, who say they have general parameters regarding Harvey’s innings, won’t let the media or the fans know what those are, keeping it a secret instead. That doesn’t make him high-maintenance, it makes him cautious.
Without one of the Mets doctors, or an independent third party coming out and publicly stating that Harvey is danger of hurting his surgically repaired elbow, it’s difficult to know what the right course of action is.
The staff ace drew criticism for potentially abandoning his team at the most important time even though the Mets have juggled their rotation and managed his innings in an attempt to ensure he would be available in September and October.
Harvey has put the decision of whether or not he will exceed the 180 innings limit in the hands of his agent Scott Boras who is following the doctor’s orders and doesn’t want Harvey to pitch more than 180 innings.
Despite what Scott Boras says and despite what some doctors have allegedly told him, there is no scientific evidence that proves pitching a certain amount of innings leads to injury – whether it’s before or after Tommy John surgery.
“The teammate factor I am sure bothers him a little bit”, Arrieta said after watching this soap opera develop for Harvey in New York.
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This is where the Red Sox could swoop in. That seems to be the number that will allow me to pitch into the postseason.
