“You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” – Harvey Dent
Matt Harvey – Our hero, the protector of Gotham has seemingly started to turn his back on his fans, teammates and the New York Mets.
The timing could not be worse. For the first time in seven years the Mets are in a pennant race with a great chance to win the NL East. And now, after being quoted numerous times that he will be in it for the long haul this season and his goal is to play October baseball, Harvey has done an “about-face” now stating “he’s always considered 180 innings pitched a hard limit.”
Where was this in Spring Training? Or in April when he griped at a potential two week shutdown at the All Star break? Or in June when he balked at pitching on five days rest in a six-man rotation?
With his team battling in a pennant race and playing the best baseball ever in Citi Field, now he decided to drop this bombshell on his teammates and fans?
Yes, it was Scott Boras who lit the fire 48 hours ago by “suggesting” the Mets not pitch Harvey past his 180 IP limit as provided by Dr. James Andrews.
But nobody could have expected that Harvey would suddenly side against his team and not confirm that he would be pitching beyond his next start against the Nationals on Tuesday.
The Metropolitans are lucky to have great pitching depth where maybe the loss of Harvey may not be as bad as we all currently think it is. But this still smarts.
It is hard to believe that something like this and the timing of it won’t do irreparable damage to the relationship between Harvey and the Mets and sadly Harvey and the fans.
It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. How will Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins respond to this when they have their face-to-face meetings on Sunday and Monday?
How will teammates react to the arguable anchor of the pitching staff letting them down as they try to obtain their first NL East crown since 2006?
How will the fans greet Matt Harvey in his next start at Citi Field, assuming there is a next start?
It is easy to understand where he is coming from. Matt Harvey wants to make sure he is healthy enough to obtain the $200 million contract we believe he covets. Which is understandable given his injury and workload in his first year back, but it’s all about timing and he couldn’t have chosen a worse time to drop this on the team’s lap.
Where this goes from here now has all the suspense of a real Dark Knight episode. Only this is nowhere near enjoyable or entertaining.
