The Angels announced that right-hander Matt Harvey is heading to the 10-day injured list with an upper back strain. In other moves, the Angels recalled righty Taylor Cole from Triple-A Salt Lake, optioned reliever Luke Bard and reinstated reliever Luis Garcia from the IL.
Harvey’s injury continues what has been a disastrous campaign for the ex-Met and Red, whom the Angels signed to a one-year, $11MM guarantee in the offseason. Early in his Mets stint, Harvey was among the game’s brightest stars. However, he suffered multiple significant arm injuries as his New York tenure progressed and hasn’t been much more than a back-end starter in recent seasons.
To Harvey’s credit, after the Reds acquired him from the Mets last May, he pitched well enough to lock in a decent payday with the Angels. But the move hasn’t paid off at all for Los Angeles, which has seen the 30-year-old average fewer than five innings over his 10 starts and pitch to a horrid 7.50 ERA/6.11 FIP with 6.56 K/9 against 3.94 BB/9 across 48 frames. Among pitchers who have thrown at least 40 innings this season, Harvey ranks last in ERA, sixth worst in fWAR (minus-0.3) and 11th from the bottom in K/BB ratio (1.67).
Fortunately for the Angels, they’re set to welcome back Andrew Heaney to take Harvey’s place in their rotation. Heaney hasn’t pitched yet this season on account of elbow inflammation, but he was one of the Angels’ most effective starters a year ago. If his 2018 performance is any indication, Heaney should be an easy upgrade over Harvey.
Anaheim…….where pitching careers go to die.
You stole my line!
Harvey’s career was over way before he stepped foot in Anacrime
True!
Well, it wasn’t over in Cincinnati, so please explain.
He wasn’t that good in Cincy and that was when he had something to prove. Now that he’s gotten his last pay day he’s checked out.
I still can’t believe trout signed an extension with this mess of a team.
Farm system is hot, almost no commitments after 2021,ohtani for minimum for 5 years (approx) and young pitchers. Your opinions are cancelled.
Ohhhhh my opinions are cancelled are they? Oh my stars! …………I’m sorry Art. I’ll make them my world series favorite.
Farm system is hot? Seriously? More like tepid.
It’s hot. And when Adell gets back shortly, even hotter
This is Ohtani’s 2nd year with The Angels. So we have him 4 more years.
And what a horrible 4 years they will be with Ohtani dragging the team down!
(sarcasm!)
You think Ohtani is going to resign? Your Angels play in a dump and the team will never win. Enjoy the Astros for the next 4-5 years.
Are you seriously asking if a guy will re-sign in 4 years??
Angels, and their farm system, are hot garbage. FACT.
Bruised ego more like
A Good Agent got him that deal. . .
Maybe this is the most recent “phantom injury?” He got lit up the other day and this gives him time to rest and work on things and the Halos a chance to see how Heaney comes out of his start tomorrow. All I know is it can’t hurt to give him a rest for a start or two….
Strained neck from watching all those homers?
Maybe if he would pitch inside and the hitters off the plate he wouldn’t have back strain twisting to watch the ball fly out
Ok.
Anyone else is an upgrade.
Release him…
11 million haha
Terrible
dump this joker. he can’t hang.
Harvey’s been DONE SINCE 2015
DFA is all we need to know! Sign Fernando Rodney! Lol!!!!
I was actually impressed Thursday. By the sound and distance of those bombs.
(yes, I was there).
Harvey didn’t just have arm injuries. He also had thoracic outlet syndrome. Rather serious but not an arm injury.
Angels need to move Matt Harvey to the bullpen. In most of his starts he does well in the first inning after that it’s mostly bad. As a reliever he can air it out for 1 inning. You never know he could be the next Jason Isringhausen. As a starter he’s done.
Boy, What’s it going to take for the Angels to not waste the prime years of one of the greatest players in MLB history? I’m glad Trout has shown so much loyalty and faith in the organization (I’m sure the hundreds of millions helped too!) but it would be a shame if his career didn’t have at least one World Series championship.
Failure couldn’t happen to a better guy. He is well deserving of this.
Another crap signing doesn’t work out. What a surprise. Trout deserves better. No legit intent to make this a competitive WS contender this year.
One publication rated the Angels farm system #22. Not so long ago it was much worse. Eppler is doing his best to keep this moribund franchise afloat with desperation free agent signings, especially to the pitching staff. No one with a brain in his head thought that signing Cahill and Harvey would catapult them to legitimacy and true to form they hover at best around .500. Still not sure why Trout resigned with them as they seem so so far away from legitimately completing for W.S.