Right-hander Matt Harvey has gotten another chance this year to get his once-great career back on track, but he hasn’t been able to take advantage of the opportunity since the Royals promoted him Aug. 18. He’ll now move to the Royals’ bullpen with a couple weeks left in the season, while Carlos Hernandez will join their rotation, Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star tweets.
A front-end starter earlier in his career, injuries – including thoracic outlet surgery – knocked Harvey from elite status a few years ago. He hasn’t recovered since, and this is now the second straight horrid season in the majors for the Dark Knight. He struggled so much with the Angels last year that they bailed on him in July 2019 despite an $11MM investment. While Harvey did land a minor league contract with the Athletics the next month, he didn’t make it back to the majors last season and didn’t find another deal until the Royals signed him this past July.
From the non-contending Royals’ standpoint, there wasn’t much to lose in giving the 31-year-old Harvey a shot. The buy-low move has yielded disastrous results so far, though, as Harvey has surrendered 13 earned runs on 22 hits (including five home runs) and an 8:5 K:BB ratio in just 10 innings. He hasn’t lasted longer than three innings in any of his five appearances with KC.
Based on his performance in recent years, Harvey is likely headed for another minor league pact in the offseason. Of course, that’s if anyone wants to roll the dice on a hurler who has recorded a major league-worst 6.07 ERA in 317 1/3 innings since 2017.
He needs to retire already. A very sharp and ugly fall from grace.
He could try playing overseas
The Chris Davis of pitchers?
Except the massive contract attached to Chris Davis.
Maybe the O’s should move Davis to the pen lol.
Could it hurt at this point?? At least then everybody could say, “Well, he’s a pitcher, he’s not supposed to hit well…”
Ya would probably hurt the Yankees playoff chances
Good point
Honestly, I’ve thought each of the last couple off seasons that convincing Davis to try pitching during Instructional League and/or ST might have been a no-cost way to see if there’s anything at all Davis can still contribute.
There have been many Chris Davis of pitchers… Tim Lincecum, Brandon Webb, Jeremy Bonderman, Jordan Zimmerman just to name a few
Brandon Webb was great
I don’t think Webb belongs on that list with the others. He didn’t really have a sharp fall from grace with a string of ugly performances. Sadly after two shoulder surgeries he was only able to pitch in a few minor league games before he realized he couldn’t physically do it anymore.
Neither does Lincecum with his 2 Cy Youngs and 2 no hitters. He was a heckuva pitcher until injuries took over. You can’t blame him for trying to come back. He was still fairly young.
I’ll give you Webb, but I was living in the Bay during Lincecum’s Cy Young years through his fall from grace. He lost effectiveness when his velocity dipped. Bochy over pitched him (and Cain)when they were young. Cain held up because he had a starting pitcher build. Lincecum did not.
Not sure we can lay Lincecum’s failures on Bochy.
Bochy overpitched him? Yeah, ok.
Look around. 29 other teams can be called out for “overpitching” someone. Seems nearly every starting pitcher with any modicum of success has be injured. The blame falls squarely on major league baseball’s lack of desire to protect pitchers and their intent on making baseball an offensive-driven game. There are ways to do that without monitoring or capping innings pitched or pitch counts. But don’t lay the blame on Bochy here.
I lived in San Francisco during Tim Lincecum’s Giants career. Tim carried the Giants on his shoulders in the 2010 post season. He won four games (in five starts) including two in the World Series. Tim had a great run and brought style and flair to SFG baseball until his arm gave way. He earned over $100M during his career! Only wish he had been able to continue his dominance into his 30’s.
He was good at one time something Davis never was
Ian Kennedy is the Chris Davis of pitchers. One big season, nice big contract.
What about Kris Davis of the A’s 3 years 40÷ HR’S Big contract now down to 2
Except Chris Davis hit….. wait for it…..
47 HRS
And
53 Hrs
In two separate seasons. Good for 5.1 and 7 WAR respectfully! One might say he had more than 1 good season, Billy boy!
Boras fail if I recall correctly!
Boras almost ruined Trevor Rosenthal and Greg Holland too by rushing them into one of his “showcases” before they were ready.
Why did Boras give him TOS? Seems foolish
To his credit, Boras tried to protect Matt Harvey. In the exuberance surrounding the Mets second half surge that led to the WS, there was an ongoing struggle, played out in the media, between Mets FO and Boras, The Mets brass, pushing for the title, exceeded Harvey’s pre-agreed innings limit in his first year back from TJ surgery. Harvey, caught up in the excitement, sided with the FO. After a strong start to 2016, Harvey started to unravel around June. His fastball had lost its late rise which had induced so many swings and misses. Harvey gambled it all on 2015 and lost. Sad as he could have been a HoFer.
I give Boras no such credit. The Mets tried all season to limit Harvey’s innings and he refused to go along. Where was Boras then? He and Harvey only began to complain later in the season when Harvey has already racked up innings and they were in a playoff hunt.
Boras wasn’t the one trying to convince Terry Collins to stay in a game after he was told he’d be pulled. And, well, we know the rest.
Putting the blame on Boras is lame. Rhyme not intended.
I put a $1 he actually performs as a solid(just solid) reliever…. only a $1tho
Could’ve been an opportunity for Daniel Lynch. Another missed opportunity for KC and their fans
No use wasting Lynch in this strange and miserable season.
Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? It’d be nice to see Harvey break out in the pen.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. A freight train called washed up.
Might save his career. Always felt Harvey could be effective going forward as a reliever
If the Royals are willing to hold onto him, he must be showing signs that his stuff is coming around in between games. Would be great to see him revive his career in the pen ala Drew Pomeranz.
It’s probably just more of a case of knowing that there’s no chance at the playoffs and with just over a dozen games left in the season they might as well let his arm be used rather than a younger guy with potential and no service time used that may not be quite ready for the big leagues.
Happy Trails to you….
Pagan back up for the padres a few hours ago announced
The A’s did it with Dennis Eckersley when moving Dennis to the bullpen and he was lights out for Oakland, just incredible. Perhaps the Royals want to see how Harvey performs in the pen. We shall see…
Eckersley wasn’t a shell of him self coming off TOS surgery. I don’t see how a move to the pen does anything for Harvey.
His swing strike rate is at a career low, he hasn’t shown anything positive like he can get through a lineup one time, and he doesn’t have any strength in his splits. Not sure how an inning out of the pen will magically work as opposed to getting beaten senseless at the beginning of the game.
I know people will say his stuff will play up in the pen, but I doubt he was pacing himself in games like he thought he was going 6 or 7.
If only the Royals had drafted him instead of Christian Colon in the first place, there would have been great overlap for the brief windows of Matt Harvey being good and the Royals being good.
Are we sure BVW has not considered signing Christian Colon to take Lowrie’s place in the Mets’ menagerie of broken and/or underperforming middle infielders?
Pfft, he’s not interested in a broken or underperforming middle infielder unless he comes at a high price.
Except Christian Colon played a major role in the Royals 14 and 15 playoff runs (so did Matt Harvey, come to think of it!)
Remember Colon got a huge walk, stole a base and scored the winning run on Salvy’s hit in the 14 Wild Card game and drove in the winning run in Game 5 of the 2015 WS.
I’m still confident they’d rather have drafted someone with more than 0.5 career WAR at #4 overall.
Did he ever dance with the devil in a pale blue jersey?
He clearly didn’t make a deal with him.
Or maybe he’s now paying up for a previous deal.
If it’s a previous deal, I’m guessing Harvey’s paying back the one that landed him Adriana Lima for however long they “dated.”
Okay, Royals. We get it. You’re tanking. It’s not subtle, but there’s a ton of value in having early draft picks. It’s often the difference between All-Stars and quad-A players when compared to teams that draft in the teens or later. When you look at the economics of the game, it’s obvious that there will always be teams that rebuild. It just makes sense, especially in Kansas City among many others.
That’s not really how the draft works. This isn’t the NBA.
Sort of, but you can maneuver more with bigger bonus pools. Like when the Astros were able to take McCullers or Cameron because they knew they had enough money to take a premiere player up top and still put aside extra money for a faller with big bonus demands. The Royals showed willingness to play that way when they took Hunter Dozier and saved money to draft and sign Manea later. It’s not the NBA, but the worse their record, the more money to play with those strategies.
Yea the money does add another factor
Jeeez, I hope it works out. Man, he was so good for a stretch. Lotta talent. Hate seeing all that ability robbed by injury.
pack it in…
yarn.co/yarn-clip/2ac26249-f8b4-4f20-836a-3433eba9…
Dark Knight going through dark times. His pitches just seemed flat and he left way too many pitches over the heart of the plate.
He was a great pitcher in his early years. He’s had two devastating injuries and surgical repairs. Kudos to him for trying multiple comebacks. But his pitches are flat and hittable. Perhaps he can re-invent himself — Imo any transformation would need to be MAJOR (think RA Dickey, not Dennis Eckersley)
Nope. He will mope and alienate the coaching staff and his team members. Harvey believes he is a starter and will never settle to relieve.
What about Kris Davis of the A’s 3 years 40÷ HR’S Big contract now down to 2
It’s really not unusual for high power, high strikeout, low average guys to suddenly go off a cliff in their early 30s. Maybe he’ll have a dead cat bounce year like Carlos Pena did with the Cubs, but a lot of similar guys have fallen off and been done like this. See also: Chris Davis.
Matt Harvey had a great career? He had 1 good year. 2015 and he won 13 games.
” once great career”?.. get drug tested lately?..
His stat line is disastrous and he had one atrocious start, but his other three starts he was very, very good for two innings before the wheels fell off in the third. Not just putting up zeros but the fastball looked great. Personally I like him as an opener with Carlos Hernandez coming in behind him. If they would’ve pulled him after two when they did that instead of trying to force 3 IP out of him it would’ve worked great.
Funny that they say the Royals didn’t have much to lose in signing him. What about Credibility? Missed development opportunities for younger pitchers? Major league games? I know expectations were low, but really there was nothing to gain. Even if he was a stud for three or four starts the trade deadline had passed so they aren’t getting anything for him. Makes zero sense.