Mets ace Matt Harvey is going to skip his next scheduled start, a planned move by New York in order to help limit the right-hander’s innings in his first season back from Tommy John surgery.
Advertisement
There have been talks for a while now that each of the young starters would probably skip a start because their innings are “adding up”. While Harvey and the Mets haven’t always seen eye to eye over the past couple years, he appears to be in agreement with the decision. “The last thing you want to do is keep putting it off or waiting to hear when it’s going to happen”, Harvey said. The bottom line is that he’s too valuable of an asset to the team’s long-term future to let him become worn out and increase his chance of injury.
Harvey, who has had a very good season overall despite some occasional inconsistency, has never pitched more than 178.1 innings in a single major league season.
“With the amount of innings we’ve built up and the stretch we have coming up, especially pitching in September and trying to get into October, we all discussed and felt like this was a good time. I just kind of preferred that it would be sooner rather than later”. He suggested that his comfort level from already having worked with catcher Travis d’Arnaudwill aid him, as opposed to if he had been called up from the minors to make his debut asa starter. In 2007, the Mets squandered a large division lead and ultimately missed the postseason by one game. Harvey was on pace for roughly 210 regular-season innings. “And I don’t want to do it in September, so I’m doing it now”.
Since joining the Mets, Verrett has a 0.68 ERA with 12 strikeouts and four walks in 13 1/3 innings. “If we are going to do it and this guy is gonna get skipped, let’s do it right now”, Mets manager Terry Collins said.
CF Yoenis Cespedes went 5-for-6 with three home runs, a double, seven RBIs and five runs during the Mets’ 14-9 win Friday at Colorado.
Noah Syndergaard also will be skipped “shortly”, according to Collins, but will make his scheduled start against the Phillies on Tuesday.
Advertisement
Verrett’s best pitch is his slider. I told them I was completely on board with whatever they wanted to do. “I don’t know that the radar readings were as high”, Harvey said about arm fatigue. Logan Verrett will start against the Rockies at Coors Field instead. “If he commands that strike zone like he shows he can, he’s going to be fine”.
