Mets GM Sandy Alderson appeared as a guest on ESPN Radio with Mike Lupica on Wednesday, and said that the injury to Matt Harvey will not change the team’s plans going forward.
“It’s not a dream unrealized,” Alderson said. “It may be a dream deferred.”
His goals remain the same which he says is to “stockpile talent and lower the payroll to reinvest in team and win ballgames.”
Alderson said that losing Harvey is a setback, but this is what happens to all teams in baseball and that’s why you don’t build a team around one great player. “All teams have contingencies for these types of setbacks, and so do we.”
“Matt Harvey is not the plan,” Alderson said. “He’s part of a larger plan.”
Alderson also addressed that tweet yesterday from Matt Harvey who hopes to be back next season, and basically validated what I said. “Matt was not in deep denial.” (or delusional?)
“There is some possibility that surgery can be avoided,” Alderson said. “Is there a risk it can tear further? Yes…But there is still some possibility that surgery will not occur and Matt will decide to do something else. We’re going to wait three weeks and test it, to see if he’s hurting.”
Then Alderson said: “Matt spoke to Roy Halladay yesterday and Halladay said ‘I had the same problem 10 years ago and I still haven’t had the surgery.’ There is reason to hope in that regard.”
Glad to see Sandy address both these issues and to do so logically as too many are trying to inflame things more than they need to be.
Original Post: Loss Of Harvey Should Not Alter Our Plans For 2014
From the day that Sandy Alderson first took the reins as the Mets new general manager during the 2010 offseason, we’ve all been conditioned to believe that 2014, his fourth year on the job, would signal the beginning of something special.
By the end of the 2012 season, Matt Harvey emerged as the poster child for the new and exciting era that lied ahead for the franchise. And why not? Here he was in his first full season vying for a Cy Young and giving the youngest among us a taste of what it must have felt like when Tom Seaver turned the franchise around.
With all the feel of a Greek tragedy, it all came crashing down on August 26, 2013. That was when we all learned that Matt Harvey has been pitching with a sore forearm that was finally checked out by team doctors when the soreness became more severe after his last start against the Tigers when he gave up a career-high 13 hits. During an impromptu press conference, Sandy Alderson uttered the words that none of us wanted to hear.
“This afternoon, team doctors have confirmed that Matt Harvey as a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. This is not good news, obviously, and we will know more over the next two weeks, during which they will better determine his treatment. But surgery has not been ruled out.”
It sent shock-waves to Met fans everywhere. There would be no more Harvey Days this season, and perhaps next season as well.
Within 12 hours, everyone had posts entitled, “What the Matt Harvey Injury Means.”
What the hell do you think it means? Do we really need to tell you what it means in 1,000 words? I can tell you what it means in two words… We’re screwed.
The better question, and one that I will try my best to answer, is this one…
How does this impact our offseason and can the Mets navigate through this in 2014?
On how it will impact our offseason, a lot of that depends on how Zack Wheeler, Jon Niese and Dillon Gee end this season. If they continue pitching and developing the way all three have as of late, the collateral damage won’t be as bad as it looks. We can go into this offseason with the same goals we had 48 hours ago, and that is to acquire a power-hitting outfielder and an everyday shortstop. Regardless of the Harvey situation, those two items should still be at the top of our agenda.
The timing of the Harvey injury is unfortunate because of the lateness in the season. It means we won’t have an opportunity to see what prospects Jacob deGrom or Rafael Montero can offer. Both of them are close to being shutdown due to their innings caps.
We head into the offseason with some uncertainty about Jenrry Mejia as well. The 23-year old righthander was pitching brilliantly before being shutdown after the bone spur in his elbow became to painful to pitch through. He is set to have surgery in the next 5-7 days. How he responds has yet to be determined. In most cases this is a simple procedure and just a basic cleaning up of loose bodies in the elbow. But when you consider Frank Francisco has missed the entire year after a similar procedure, it certainly makes you wonder.
Our expectations for 2014 have certainly taken a hit and for many our optimism is now tempered and subdued. But let me remind you that despite the loss of our ace, it still takes 25 players to compete and I see no reason why the Mets can’t contend in the NL East next season.
While Harvey will certainly be missed, there are several opportunities for other pitching prospects to step up and shine, just as Harvey did last year when we lost Johan Santana. We thought the sky was falling back then as well. Guess what? It didn’t…
The good news is that Harvey is both young and strong and could be back as soon as next season if the Mets don’t delay the inevitable and get this surgery taken care of as soon as possible. How they proceed remains to be seen.
All I’m saying is that we shouldn’t let this damper our spirit. At some point Matt Harvey will be back and with the amazing advances with Tommy John Surgery, many pitchers come back just as strong as before, and in some cases even stronger. In fact, Jenrry Mejia was proving that before he was shut down.
So let’s stay the course. Lets continue with the plan we had in place and fill those key spots in the outfield and shortstop, while trying to come up with a final resolution at first base. These matters still have to be settled.
Lets control the things we can, and stop worrying about the things we can’t control.
In the meantime, we’ll wish Matt a speedy recovery… We all anxiously await his return to what should be a much better team than the one we will end this season with.
