Thoughts from Joe D.
On Wednesday night, after Matt Harvey complained of fatigue and weakness due to symptoms of dehydration and was treated by team trainers, I like all of you, was somewhat concerned.
When Harvey didn’t speak to reporters I actually became even more concerned, wondering if there was more to this story than just a simple case of a player becoming dehydrated on a night that reached 97° on the field.
It certainly appears as though the other shoe has dropped this morning, when Scott Boras dropped his bombshell with Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
Today we learn that the 180 innings for Matt Harvey was not a recommendation by doctors “but a mandate.”
If that is true, and so far we have yet to hear from the Mets on this, then Harvey has an incredibly difficult decision to make at some point in the next 24 hours.
He can opt to side with his agent and his doctors and ask the Mets to follow their mandates implicitly, or he can throw caution to the wind and keep soldiering on.
This will not be an easy decision for Harvey who is now stuck between a rock and a hard place. But make no mistake about it, this is his decision alone.
The New York Mets can make their case and their recommendations to him just like the doctors and his agent, but ultimately it will come down to what he wants to do.
There is a lot at stake here for Harvey, and most paramount of all is his health and future well being. He has already thrown 166 innings this season, his first since Tommy John surgery.
However, just as important is how this affects the team which is on the verge of their first postseason since 2006. Wow, the stakes are so high.
The 180 innings mandated by doctors is a new twist here, and any innings limit conversations in the past were never portrayed as distinctly and seriously as Scott Boras is asserting today.
In fact, Boras has had nothing but praise for how the Mets have handled Harvey. So to come out like this is quite bizarre and curious and suggests some kind of ulterior motive in my opinion. To be honest, it reeks.
Unfortunately, everything now hinges on how Harvey handles this situation. You have a team and a fan base that has always looked up to him as a warrior. And given all of his words and actions in the past three years about how all he wants more than anything else is to win a championship, what he does next will determine just how true all of that is.
Exactly how much is Harvey willing to risk to win a championship? How much is Harvey willing to risk to pitch in the postseason?
Conversely, how important is his health and livelihood going forward? One wrong move, and another serious injury could shelve him for another year or longer.
Of course Sandy Alderson will have much to say about this publicly and also privately to Harvey himself. But in the end all Sandy and the Mets can do is advise him.
This is all on Matt Harvey, and I wonder what’s going through his mind right now. This can’t be easy on him and I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.
My hunch is that he will soldier on and continue to pitch through the postseason for as long as his team is in it.
There will be one or two skipped starts to be sure, but when all is said and done I believe Harvey will stand tall and carry this team as far as it can go into the postseason.
Original Report
Scott Boras told Jon Heyman of CBS Sports this morning that the 180 innings limit on Matt Harvey this season is a hard mandate by doctors, rather than a recommendation.
“This is not a club’s decision. This is a doctor’s decision,” Boras said. “Any club that chooses to defy a surgeon’s wishes is putting the player in peril.”
Harvey, 26, has already tossed 166.1 innings this season, and the Mets have indicated that they are willing to push him slightly past 180, especially if the Mets make the postseason.
According to Heyman, Boras and the club are in disagreement over how much to push Harvey. Heyman reports that Boras reached out via email to Sandy Alderson when Harvey was around 140 innings to mention the 180 inning cap set by doctors. The two had talked about limiting Harvey before the season started, but the recent email came as a shock to him.
“For a guy to say to us on the 29th of August ‘180 innings and then you’re going to shut him down …” Alderson said,”don’t call me seven months later and tell me you’re pulling the rug out from under me, not after all we’ve done to protect the player.”
The Mets have looked at a soft cap for Harvey, likely somewhere in the range of 180, but flexible enough that Harvey could be used during the playoffs. Towards the end of the season, Alderson wants to take it start-by-start, evaluating where Harvey is at. However, Boras contends that the innings cap is a hard cap, telling Heyman “”Expert opinion by medical practitioners is not a soft number. There are no soft numbers. These are medical practitioners providing opinions about when a pitcher is at risk, and when a pitcher isn’t at risk.”
“This is not a dispute between between representative and player, and club,” Boras went on to say, “This is about a doctor providing expert medical opinion regarding the safety and well being of the player. If the club chooses to violate the ethical standard of the medical opinion, that is strictly their prerogative. I’m not a medical doctor. I don’t make these things up.”
Harvey was treated by team trainers for weakness and fatigue caused by dehydration after his start on Wednesday. Harvey did not speak with reporters after the game.
