After igniting a firestorm and then hanging his client Matt Harvey out to dry to deal with the aftermath all on his own, Scott Boras is now in full-on damage control mode.
Tyler Kepner of the New York Times, spoke to Boras,who is now trying to diffuse the situation after a shell-shocked Matt Harvey expressed anger and concern over how he is being portrayed as the villain.
“One thing is clear: The Mets want him to pitch, and Matt Harvey wants to pitch,” Boras said.
“All I care about is that the medical experts are involved in the process of determining what Matt Harvey can do. Matt is calling me every day and telling me, ‘I want to pitch.’ I got on the phone with Dr. Andrews and said, ‘We need to get together again and develop a plan so he can pitch.’ I made sure that door was not closed.”
Still, Boras insisted that Dr. James Andrews, who performed Harvey’s Tommy John surgery in October 2013, had set that 180 innings cap, not him and certainly not Matt Harvey.
However, Andrews, who could clear this whole thing up, said Friday he would keep his recommendation confidential. It’s led to speculation that he gave the Mets one message and his patient another. Remember that Harvey chose not to use Dr. Altcheck, the Mets team doctor.
Boras was bothered by Alderson’s comment in The New York Times suggesting that he had imposed his agenda on doctors to sway their recommendations. Boras said he did not have such influence and said his only agenda was to serve his client, and he repeated that his client wanted to pitch.
Boras continued to point to data and a recent study conducted of pitchers who had Tommy John surgery within the last decade without having previously thrown 200 innings.
“The pitchers with heavier workloads in their first full season back — Josh Johnson, Shaun Marcum, Kris Medlen and Jarrod Parker — have had subsequent elbow problems, while Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann, who were brought along more conservatively, have not.”
“In the last 10 years, no pitcher who has never thrown 200 innings in a season has gone from 0 innings to 190 innings following surgery,” the study said. “Matt Harvey would be a test case.”
Ultimately, the final decision will come down to Matt Harvey and how comfortable he is with continuing to pitch in light of the doctor’s recommendation, and the data that has been presented to him by Scott Boras.
On Monday, Harvey will have a face-to-face with Mets GM Sandy Alderson and manager Terry Collins with the hope that situation will be completely resolved to everybody’s satisfaction.
September 5
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports touched base with Scott Boras an hour ago, and he had several points he wanted to make on the Matt Harvey issue:
Boras said he spoke today with Harvey’s surgeon, Dr. James Andrews, and that he plans to meet with Andrews this week.
“Matt Harvey wants to pitch,” Boras said. “We’re trying to work out a plan that the doctor approves of.”
Boras said the issue only became a potential problem when the Mets’ chances of reaching the postseason improved significantly in August, and that is when he reached out to Alderson again.
“My assumption was that is where we were headed. When the playoffs came up, I called in August and said, ‘The playoffs are coming. Where are we on this?’”
Boras said he did a study of pitchers who had never thrown 200 innings in a season and then had Tommy John surgery and then ramped up to approximately the 200-inning level in their second full season after returning.
The four pitchers that Boras cited were Shaun Marcum, Josh Johnson, Jarrod Parker and Kris Medlen. All experienced complications, Boras said. All but Marcum had a second Tommy John.
In contrast, Boras said, the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann built their innings in a steadier progression, reaching 200 innings only in their fourth full season after Tommy John.
“This is the thing the doctors are most scared about,” Boras said. “Matt Harvey threw zero innings in 2014. He will be the only player in history ever to go from 0 to 200 innings.
“If you exceed your (career-high innings total) and you do it in your second season after Tommy John . . . all of those guys had complications. All of those guys had problems.”
Boras and to some degree Harvey, are really going out of their way to say that there has been a complete lack of communication between them and the front office.
Jonah Schwartz of SNY said it appears that Alderson is too old school and thought he could ignore Scott Boras, and give him the brush which is something you should never do because Boras is more involved with his players than any other agent in sports.
Additionally, it was Sandy Alderson during a press conference on February 21 who first brought up the 180 innings pitch limit for Harvey this season according to a few reports.
