Adam Rubin is rolling out his ever popular Pace Law Annual Salary Projection Series. In making their determinations, Pace puts together a panel that will base their projections on the following:
- The quality of the player’s contribution to his club during the past season (referred to as his “platform season”), including but not limited to his overall performance, special qualities of leadership and public appeal
- The length and consistency of his career contribution
- The player’s past compensation
- Comparative baseball salaries
- The existence of any physical or mental issues on the part of the player
- The recent performance record of the club, including but not limited to its league standing and attendance, as an indication of public acceptance
Matt Harvey, RHP
Pace Salary Projection: $5.325 million
MLBTR Salary Projection: $5.2 million
According to Pace, Harvey will be most closely compared to Phil Hughes (2011), Dillon Gee (2014), and Jeremy Hellickson (2014) due to his struggles. You can read their full analysis here.
[iframe]<div style=”width:100%;margin:10px 0;”><iframe src=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/5ppE0fnM3VX” width=”600″ height=”515″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” style=”position:static;vertical-align:top;margin:0 auto;display:block;width:600px !important;max-width:100%;min-height:515px !important;max-height:none !important;border:none;overflow:hidden;”></iframe><div style=”text-align:center;font:14px/16px Helvetica,arial;color:#3d3d3d;”><a target=”_blank” href=”https://baseball-players.pointafter.com/l/6886/Matt-Harvey” style=”color:#3d3d3d;”>PointAfter | Graphiq</a></div></div>[/iframe]
Matt Harvey battled injuries this year, including a blood clot in his bladder during spring training, and more notably, thoracic outlet syndrome. The latter required surgery, during which one of his ribs was removed.
His thoracic outlet syndrome directly affected his pitching in many ways, including losing feeling in his fingers, as he never could really put it together in 2016. He went 4-10 posting a 4.86 ERA. In 17 starts, he pitched 92 2/3 innings and struck out 76.
Nobody is totally sure how his surgery will affect his pitching going forward. Best case scenario (which, let’s face it, doesn’t happen for the Mets often) would be for him to return to his 2013/2015 form. He is on track to come back healthy for spring training, and if he pitches nearly as well as he has in the past, he will help round out what could end up being the best rotation in the majors.
