A recent MLBTR poll asked whether the Mets ought to move Matt Harvey to the bullpen. As poll respondents recommended, the team elected to do just that. For many pitchers, such a move would be disappointing but not otherwise terribly momentous. In Harvey’s case, though, everything occurs against the backdrop of his often-glorious, sometimes-tumultuous history in New York. Let’s take a look at the situation before posing a somewhat different question in a follow-up poll.
There was little reason entering the season to think that Harvey would resemble the ace of old. If anything, the question was whether the Mets ought even to tender him a contract. MLBTR’s Steve Adams examined that question as a disappointing 2017 Mets campaign wound to a close. Despite Harvey’s marginal recent track record, Adams explained, it’d be hard to find a bounceback candidate with a more promising outlook for a lesser price. (Player and team ultimately settled at $5.625MM for Harvey’s final season of arbitration eligibility.)
At the time the tender decision was made, there was still some reason to believe that Harvey could yet emerge from his struggles. After all, he had just completed his first season of work after undergoing surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome. A full offseason was available for Harvey to rest and build up normally, rather than rehabbing back from a procedure. And his 29th birthday would not come until just before Opening Day of 2018, putting youth on his side.
Things, clearly, have not turned out as hoped. Through 23 innings in four starts and one relief appearance, Harvey has allowed 15 earned runs on 28 hits (including four long balls) while recording 19 strikeouts and five walks.
There are some conflicting signals when you dig further. Both xFIP and SIERA grade Harvey’s output thus far at sub-4.00 levels, and his .324 BABIP-against and 66.9% strand rate could each be viewed as signals of some poor fortune. Then again, Statcast suggests Harvey has actually been somewhat lucky, as the wOBA he has allowed (.356) trails the xwOBA (.371) indicated by the quality of opponents’ contact.
More importantly, perhaps, those numbers don’t really paint a full picture of the concerns. Harvey, who once worked in the upper nineties with his fastball, has lost nearly a mile-and-a-half off his average heater just in comparison to his 2017 effort. And like last year, he’s generating swinging strikes with less than eight percent of his pitches, well off his previous career mean and well shy of league average.
The Mets neither expected nor demanded that Harvey return to being a front-of-the-rotation starter, though surely the gamble presumed there was real upside left in his arm. There’s always a downside scenario, too, of course, and that seems to be the case here. If the bet isn’t going to pay out, you have to have a backup plan. The Mets certainly did not assume that Harvey (or other talented-but-oft-injured hurlers like Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler) would pan out in 2018. The club knew it needed some additional steadiness on the staff, too, and thus added Jason Vargas. But what to do with Harvey himself?
For the time being, the former star is going to work from the bullpen, where he’ll at least be able to give some length while remaining available if a rotation need arises. The organization will no doubt prefer to bide its time before making any irrevocable decisions, and skipper Mickey Callaway says he expects Harvey will return to the rotation at some point. Still, the long-time starter’s transition to the pen does not appear to have been a smooth one to date. Harvey expressed consternation with his the idea of relief work both before and after the decision was made. And if his outburst to the media yesterday is any indication, plenty of tension remains.
The situation might look quite a bit different if we were discussing a less prominent player with a different track record with a different team. But this is the Dark Knight of Gotham. How would you handle the situation if you were Mets GM Sandy Alderson? (Link for app users.)
Trade him to the Yankees for Jacoby Elsberry
I agree
And if that doesn’t work we can trade Elsberry to the knicks for joakim Noah
Why would the Mets take on three years of Ellsbury, when they can just wave goodbye to Harvey after this season anyway? Or cut him mid season if he continues to stink.
I think because they’re joking
Trade him for Pablo Sandoval
You can’t have Pablo.
…but you can have Hunter Pence.
Deal
Wait to see what the Yankees do about Sonny Gray and follow that plan. Harvey hasn’t been as bad as Gray and he has a better track record.
Harvey also has two major surgeries
Brixton took that bait pretty easily.
Trade him for whomever. He is soft and arrogant. He can not face reality!!
When Price implodes trade him to the Red Sox straight up for Bradley,even though Legares is twice the player as JBJ.
*Lagares
Throw in Lagares and any of the of injured catchers.
Lmao and you say other people troll. Don’t throw stones from glass houses cereal
First of all JD I only say you mostly troll Yankees articles..and you know why. Secondly Bald Vinny is the biggest troll towards the Yanks on this site. WTF did his injection about Gray have to do with anything?
Which I’ve never actually done. You just say that because you disagree with me. Instead of name calling, please try a discussion instead
Trade him for a bag of balls. He is a distraction to the team and not a team player. He’s a one man show…
send him to AAA and see if he has anything left. If not, nontender.
He has to agree to go to AAA and there’s not a lot of reason to believe that he’d accept it.
He would 100% not accept the AAA assignment. He can’t stand being in the bullpen now.
Wow, you must be his agent.
He can barely take being in the major league bullpen. You think he’d go to AAA? Doesn’t take a mental giant to figure that out.
Well thanks for your keen insight and absoute first hand knowledge. A reliable data source you are. I am sure other reports will stake their reputation on your statements.
Jbigz is correct. Harvey’s also missed mandatory workouts in previous years, gone out boozing on the town. It’s put up or shut up for Harvey now.
As I said originally, he must be his agent since he is such an informed source.
Sure, sounds good.
Lol. Your whole comment line looks ridiculous. You started arguing without disagreeing with anything and said I must be an agent. There’s plenty of comments on here to poke holes at, which you clearly were interested in doing. That just wasn’t one of them.
Dangle him over the side of the Brooklyn Bridge and tell him that if he doesn’t improve his attitude, you’ll let him go…
Option 4 – Banish him to the Bat Cave
ESPN 2013 Body Issue. He’s glistening.
I couldn’t vote. You didn’t provide the option I was looking for for.
Dark Knight??? More like Ben Affleck trying to play Batman.
Trade him to the Marlins, Reds, or White Sox. If he can’t make one of these teams starting 5, his starting days may be over.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Coop try to right the ship with him. I wouldn’t trade anything of value for him, but I’d take him.
Trade him or cut him or minors
Hire Ra’s al Ghul as a pitching coach.
If he became a good closer, his entrance music could be Prince’s “Batdance.”
best comment yet, nice work
Underrated song.
Given his track record, it’s more likely “Disco Inferno” would be more appropriate.
Make him an offer he can’t refuse.
No dfa option in the poll?
Make him David Wright’s chauffeur
They should give him that $200m contract he wanted maybe that will inspire some better performance. It couldn’t be worse than Wright’s deal.
I’ve been a Met fan for over 35yrs and a Harvey supporter up until his last outing. His time in NY is done, at least with the Mets. The history of pitchers returning to form after having Thoracic Outlet Syndrome surgery is not good; and I don’t expect this to change for Harvey. He may eventually find himself again but he’ll be a #4 stater, he’ll never be an Ace or #2 again
I’m also not a fan of Harvey himself. Lets start with the fact that he was a projected 1st pick projected to sign for $2M but, b/c no team wanted to deal with Boras, Harvey fell to the 3rd round where the Angels drafted him and Harvey turned down a $1.9M contract. He was later drafted by the Mets for $2.6M (I believe). Harvey bullied Collins into staying in Game 5 of the WS, granted Collins had NO backbone, but Harvey should have come out of the game and let the CP finish out the game. Instead, Harvey got lit up and the Mets went on to lose Game 5 and cost them a chance to win the World Series. Since that debacle he’s been late for team meetings due to being hungover, he refuses to take coaches advice. He won’t talk to the Media, doesn’t want to go to the BP and he doesn’t believe there’s a problem.
Harvey is a mess and has had his chance. He’ll finish out the season in a Mets uniform but he’ll be gone after that. And, good riddance as far as I’m concerned…
He didn’t bully Collins, and I agreed with the decision at the time. Stop playing hindsight. Harvey was rolling and if Duda can make a throw to the plate or if Wright doesn’t cut off the shortstop to make a lollipop throw to first base, the Mets win. Davey Johnson used to tell his pitchers, one base runner and you’re out. Collins waited too long because he was too worried about having to defend the decision after just one hitter. Collins is a complete moron, but Familia blew three saves that World Series, so let’s not pin this on Harvey. He did his job. Duda sucked, the whole offense sucked, and the closer sucked. That’s why they lost, and Harvey didn’t say anything every other pitcher wouldn’t say. And, everyone forgets he had TWO good starts that series…
Agree to disagree, with regards to Harvey. But I agree with you on everything else. Yea, he and every other pitcher would have wanted to go back in. Collins should have had a backbone and brought in Familia – I thought that at the time as well. It’s all moot at this point.
But, that event aside, he’s done nothing to help his case in New York. Being late to multiple meetings because of hangovers, being a complete a-hole to the media, an overall bad teammate, etc…the guy’s a bum.
Hey Gus…no worries when these Flushing fans acknowledge what you say and then turn it around so they can add all of their corrupt rationalizations to spin it their way.
Collins was spineless. He was the manager, who rode one hot players offensive performance as far as he could.
There was no back up. There was zero strategy.
Simple minds created the WS loss. It wasn’t as close as they will try to make believe.
Oh mikeyank, how clueless and petty you are.
What did Mikey say that was wrong, JD?
Petty Goat?
You are in deep denial. Too bad. There is great medicine to treat your condition.
Hey Nicky-he didn’t bully “TC”. He did what any manager wants a pitcher to do, ask for the ball. “TC” was the dope in acting as a cheerleader, rather than manage the moment and make the best decision.
Bottom line is that Harvey’s resentment is a result of the team manipulating the press and fans by calling him out for his innings watch.
They embarrassed him into reversing what sound judgement of his doctors had set out. So now his big pay day is down the toilet.
HIs “big payday” is in the toilet because of his injury and his inability to recover from it; nothing more/nothing less. He hasn’t been the same since his surgery.
Good point. The toilet is the only facility within Citifield that is state of the art. When the others fall behind Harvey, the story will be complete about how many young arms were blown out as the team flushed the pitchers’ careers down the toilet.
Sounds like trade bait to me!
trade him
The option I wanted to choose was partial on here in cut Harvey loose if he doesn’t improve. I’m pretty sure we’ll soon read or here Matt Harvey has been dfa’d by the Mets. Just a matter of hours or days.
They won’t DFA Harvey for the simple fact of his “potential”. The Mets will hold on to him and hope he gets better so they can try to trade him. If not, they’ll keep him to the end of the year and let him go this off-season.
The reason that he won’t be DFA’d is that the Cheap Wilpon’s will never stand for being made fools of by paying someone to play somewhere else.
where’s the DFA option?
Cut ties at the end of the offseason
Matt Harvey holds his pee too long.
True story.
I say this as a Phillies fan who is enjoying the turmoil… I think you need to keep him as long as his attitude isn’t effecting his teammates. If it starts effecting them I think you just cut bait and get a rental arm at the deadline.
Hello Texas Rangers here comes another re-hab project. Harvey will be a very good pitcher for that rotation
Better he goes to the Astros and he can drive that stupid train in their joke of a stadium. Enron or something, wasn’t it?
Kinda like Tyson Ross last year?
Trade him to the Cubbies for Darvish
So live harvesting his organs as recoupment for his contract isn’t a viable option?
Trade him to the Angels for Mike Trout
throw his name out on the market, see if you can get someone to take most of his contract.. If you get a player back of any sort its a win for the Mets.
Pirates might be a good spot to look but he’d have to be okay at being long relief until his arm is ‘proven’ or fixed. Pirates have had some success in this.. might be worth a shot as the pirates need some pitching help.. but they do have help hopefully coming soon(ish).
He has nearly no trade value from what i can see.. poor performance the past few years. along with his contract ending
Trade Harvey for The Big Sexy.
Why would the Rangers make that trade?
trade him for literally anything, a bag of chips would be nice or some soft wool socks.
I asked this already on another page but before it got to this point should they have considered Matz to the pen instead? I feel like he has struggled more than Harvey
Yankees should buy low.
Should have traded him after his little temper tantrum cost them game 5 of the 2015 World Series.
Trade him for Victor Zambrano