Right-hander Matt Harvey didn’t make it to the big leagues last year but is hoping for another shot, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post.
Harvey, turning 34 this month, didn’t make it into a major league game last year for the first time since 2014. He signed a minor league deal with the Orioles but was handed a 60-game suspension from Major League Baseball. Harvey testified in the trial of former Angels communications director Eric Kay. Harvey testified that he provided Tyler Skaggs with Percocet pills. Kay was convicted by a Fort Worth jury of distributing fentanyl that resulted in the death of Skaggs. Harvey was granted immunity from criminal prosecution for his testimony but was handed that suspension from MLB. After serving his suspension, he threw 70 1/3 innings in the minors last year, posting a 3.71 ERA.
Harvey underwent knee surgery towards the end of last year and hoped to make it back for 2023. It seems his rehab from that procedure went fine, as he recently suited up for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. While returning to health was surely encouraging, he also posted good results, allowing just a single earned run in seven innings. He only record three strikeouts in that time but also issued just a single walk and allowed only four hits.
Harvey’s strikeout stuff has been on the decline for pretty much his whole career. He punched out 28.6% of hitters in his debut season and that swooned to the mid-teens in recent years. Though his fastball now sits in the 89-91 mph range, he believes he’s figured out how to work with that kind of stuff. “Obviously I’m not pumping mid-to-upper-90s anymore — at least not yet. Hopefully, the velo comes back. But if it doesn’t, I feel like I still know how to pitch and to get guys out,” Harvey said. “I’ve worked really hard on a different style of pitching. I feel good. Hopefully the stuff comes back. But I can still pitch. The game is still about getting people out.” He was especially proud of his control, saying that he “could have thrown it into a tea cup.”
Harvey had a really strong run earlier in his career but has been set back by various injuries. In 2015, he made 29 starts for the Mets with a 2.71 ERA in 189 1/3 innings. However, his ERA jumped to 4.86 the year after and he hasn’t been able to get it lower than that since. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2014, thoracic outlet syndrome surgery in 2016 and knee surgery last year.
It’s certainly been a rollercoaster, but Harvey is hoping to get another shot. “Hopefully someone gives me a chance,” he tells Heyman. Despite his nice showing in the WBC in recent weeks, he’ll be limited to minor league deals based on his lack of recent success in the majors. With Opening Day now two weeks away, various clubs have been dealing with blows to their rotation depth. Andrew Painter of the Phillies, Cade Cavalli of the Nationals and José Quintana of the Mets are just some of the pitchers looking at significant absences around the league and perhaps leading those clubs to seek out some extra depth.
There’s no chance he’s still only 33
Hi Matt: Noooooooooooooo
2015 was EIGHT years ago. It’s over.
What is his connection to Italy?
His mother’s side is Italian.
The connection is he seems like he would be connected to the Mafia.
He loves Pizza Hut.
What is Pizza Hut’s connection to Italy?
What is Pizza Hut’s connection to pizza?
Now that’s funny. I used to love the Hut when I was a kid and it was good pizza.
Exactly. That’s why it’s a joke, Ski.
My son loves Pizza Hut. I’m have no idea why.
Stuffed Crust Baby
For a true world classic, players should be limited to either their birth country or the country they call home if they’ve formally adopted a new one. To have players fill out rosters because they couldn’t get on another is artificial to get 20 teams to compete.
I would add wearing a moustache to that list otherwise Italy won’t be able to field a team.
Pizza the Hutt
More like pizza butt
he eats pizza
Really you don’t think he’ll make it?
Go grab a cookie upstairs
Really you don’t think he’ll make it?
Go grab a cookie upstairs.
A Mets reunion would be interesting.
Pardon me while I laugh
Eric Kay did that all the way to prison
Who?
It’s in the title genius.
Matt Harvey
the Dark Knight returns
Or walks into the dark night?
Skaggs made a bad choice but Harvey gave him laced drugs. He should be banned for life. But oh Bauer is so awful.
Bauer lets people “virtue signal”. They don’t care about real monsters in the game like Harvey, Chapman, Herrera, Machado, Odor. Apparently they are all fine. But Bauer had rough sex with a woman who over it and kept wanting more, then screamed when he broke up with her. Plus, Bauer is awkward, and it’s easy to show how liberal we are by hating him openly. Matt Harvey… meh! All he did was kill a guy. What’s the problem?
Exactly. Nothing wrong with beating a woman unconscious and raping her as long as she “asks for it”, right?
Ass
I really am. I know. But on the other hand, it’s fun.
I’m asking because I don’t know not to have a jerk response but what did Machado do?
What did Machado do?
What did Odor do? He has done nothing at all wrong. Why do people pick on him so much?
Other way around, Skaggs gave him the fentanyl, thats why he’s in prison. Harvey gave him an a prescribed opoid- criminal act but per report he was given immunity. Not defending Harvey at all. But I wonder how commonplace it is in MLB for players and trainers to share painkillers without prescriptions. Like speed in the good old days, it is probably a regular occurrence. All that being said, Harvey has been a jerk for a long time. I wouldnt want him on my team if he was throwing 99.
@cleon another thing people like to forget skaggs was an addict and sadly watched opiates destroy and turn good friends into addicts and the thing is skaggs and anyone else hooked on it is going to find it one way or another.
Sign with the Baystars in Japan and join Bauer in the rotation.
Bay stars are at their limit for foreign born players allowed on the roster. Looks like they will actually have to cut one to make the Bauer signing official.
How is it somehow not objectionable, racist, nationalist, and vile for the Japanese and Korean Leagues to have “foreign born player” limits?! Imagine if MLB instituted a “foreign born player” limit! All you lefties would lose your minds!!! But it’s somehow totally fine for Japan and Korea? Weird.
The rules in other countries that don’t have anything to do with this one certainly seem to have gotten one “rightie” riled up enough to make a stink about it. Seriously, what’s the point of the useless political jab? Have fun arguing with yourself in your mind? There’s not even an election going on… can we please have a break?
Coincidently, if you were to look up why the rules in those countries are in place… they’d probably make sense to you.
You know you would be breathlessly offended if MLB imposed a rule limiting foreign born players. Project your holier than thou lefty snobbery all you like. But you know you would never go along with such a rule in any American sport. Try denying it. Of course you won’t deny it. It then again, these comment boards are really here for us to say nasty things to total strangers, so let’s keep doing that 🙂 SSSSSSUCK IT!!!
Limiting foreign born players in MLB would water down the product and make it less interesting.
The KBO and NPB allowing unlimited foreign born players would turn them into joyless AAAA products that no one would have any reason to watch, immediately bankrupting them.
How many minor league games do you go to a year and do you really think even AAA teams are profitable apart from their parent franchises?
All of the leagues are trying to make themselves as interesting as possible but MLB and the eastern leagues are essentially in opposite positions. The rules make sense if you want professional baseball to continue to exist there brother.
@elmedius
The KBO/NPB are now considered default AAA minor leagues for the MLB.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/update-to-the-board-npb-prospects/
I’d say the MLB is a threat to these other leagues as they are now taking the best players from their leagues, which is exactly what happens with in the minors here. The only difference is that they pay a transfer fee to sign these guys instead of just calling them up.
You know you don’t believe KBO and NPB limit foreign players because they fear being AAAA…. They know their fans want to watch Korean and Japanese players. The same way MLB teams used to think their fans wanted to watch white players. And you also know your problem with MLB limiting foreign players has nothing to do with watering down the product. It would be absolutely racist and nationalist. Same as Japan and Korea. KBO and NPB already are AAAA leagues. They know it.
I don’t see how he actually gets another shot in the bigs after all that. Tainted goods with plenty of comparable pitchers that don’t have his ethical baggage.
Inching closer to that 10yr service time, so why not?
He’d be worth a shot as a multi ip guy? No idea what type of clubhouse guy he is….
I’d say his story pretty much shows the exact kind of clubhouse guy he is
He’s been bad for almost a decade. The last time he had a good season. Obama was President.
Chaim salivating at the possibility
Pirates can sign him but truthfully the man shouldn’t be allowed back on any MLB Diamond!
Harvey has a live fastball and other pitches
I would love to see him try to become a closer
He could even return to the Mets and do it
A closer with no stuff who throws 90mph? It’s not 2015 anymore. Harvey does not have a live fastball.
He consistently hit the high 90’s with the Orioles
Bad recent performance? Check
Bad clubhouse presence as a Met? Check
Distribution of drugs as an Angel? Check.
Dude is perfect for the NFL but no MLB team will touch him.
I know it sounds awful, but is there anyone here who hasn’t been handed drugs by a friend. He was given a pain pill. My mother has given me a pain pill.
Context.
This isn’t about you or your mom, Halo11Fan. I had an appendectomy several years ago and was prescribed Oxy upon discharge – about 14 days’ worth. Never picked up my script as I didn’t want the possibility of getting hooked. I popped Advil like candy instead for a few days and I’m sure my liver cursed loudly at me. Lots of folks commenting here have little understanding of the power of addiction. Users enable other users.
I’m saying context. He gave him drugs once in April. And I’ve also given a pain pill to a friend.
Harvey was with the team for a whole month.. I doubt he realized he had an issue. Bad judgement, sure. Bad guy? Not based on that.
It’s about context. He wasn’t his pusher.
Agreed. I don’t think anyone involved, including Eric Kay, was trying to make a quick buck slinging pills. We’ll never know who had an addiction due to medical confidentiality.
He only handed it out once that we know about.
After having a couple friends die from them, I’m just over the Mexican Oxy’s. Keep scoring them and you will die. Pass them out and your friends will die.
I might be bringing my own bias to this, but I wouldn’t bring an oxy user who passes out pills onto my team.
Halo, you’re basically just trying to sugarcoat your own crime at this point. You really just made yourself look awful.
Um, I’ve never touched drugs of any kind because I’m smart enough to not associate with druggies. Yes, people like me exist.
Druggies? Got it. If you had a pain killer, you’re a druggie. What it must be like to live in your world?
There’s a difference between just taking painkillers and being someone like Harvey who didn’t have a prescription. Let’s stop with this garbage about Kay and Co. just being some bros sharing pills. This isn’t a joke – you provide someone pills and they OD on them you’re a murderer. Full stop.
According to testimony he gave him three or four pills. You people are nuts. Oh my God! Self Righteous nuts.
No, I have never been handed drugs by a friend. I’ve taken the precise dose prescribed by a doctor or according to an OTC label. This isnt a common thing to get drugs from friends, no.
You have a double negative in your last sentence, so I’m not sure what it means. Yes, it’s very common to get drugs from friends. That’s how people are typically introduced to drugs.
I talk to my 16 year old son about it at least a couple times a month. A Texas 16 year old died this week because the Percocet she got from a friend was laced with Fentynal.
How do you people not know what’s going on right now? .
A good friend of mine’s 21 year old son died of the same thing.
The cartels are making counterfeit pills beyond Oxy now. It’s frightening as a parent.
Terrible thing. In my day, a friend gave you a quaalude, and it was better than social drinking. And since I’m mildly autistic, social anxiety was debilitating, and it allowed me to socially function. My nickname was hermit, and for good reason.
Today, you get a pain pill and you die.
Of course I know that there is a drug epidemic in some states. My point is that we don’t absolve the provider based on some vague idea that everyone does it. Everyone doesn’t do it. Normal people don’t give opioids to their addict friends.
I will absolutely hold someone who does accountable because they can and should know better. It’s not an honest mistake.
I hate reading or watching the news. I do my best to ignore what is going on right now. I have never been handed pills by anyone, and I’d never take pills if someone handed them to me. If it’s the trend for people to swallow pills handed to them these days, it’s all the more reason I don’t care what happens to them. That seems insane to me. If a person just hands you pills and you choose to take them, you get what you get. I don’t care what happens to you. I am allowed not to care. And if you think it makes sense for people to do that type of thing, have at it. I’m not stopping anyone. Go for it!
We have different life experiences. And today is a lot different than the 70s.
We didn’t have to worry about pot wrapped up to look like candy bars. We didn’t have to worry about fentanyl.
This is all recent.
The era doesn’t absolve you from the crime.
Absolve, Free from guilt? Really? Again context. We have people saying he’s a pusher for giving 3 or 4 pain pills, and then we have some who say free from guilt.
Again, context.
Just let it go. I once gave a friend my leftover prescribed nicotine patches to help him quit smoking and it worked. I guess I’m guilty as well.
Or even the 90s/00s.
Really there’s pre and post fentynal. I did a ton of partying in my day. I’d die in this era if I did 10% of what I did on my day.
That’s not exactly the same thing as narcotics
DTD/ATL1313
So you have never taken an aspirin from someone. Aspirins are physically addictive and they are a pain reviler.
If you don’t think aspirin is physically addictive, you are naive.
As I keep saying… CONTEXT.
Context is overrated.
I’m as judgmental as the next guy. Don’t even get me started on the cheaters who too PEDs.
I just don’t think giving a teammate 3 or 4 pain killers qualifies someone as a low-life.
He deserved his suspension. He acquired pain killers without a prescription. I don’t think he deserves to be ostracized for giving a teammate a three of four pills.
“Fentynal”?
I’d bet most people have never taken pills handed to them by a buddy. I couldn’t imagine any of my friends or family handing me prescription drugs and saying, “here, try this.” I hope I’m not in the minority on this, but in 2023 it seems everything I used to think was “normal” is now considered “hateful”.
Saratoga72. And I bet you are wrong.
You think pot smokers walked into a pot store and that was their first experience with pot? You think the first time someone drank alcohol the walked into a store bought a pint?
For a lot of people, yes. “Most” people don’t smoke pot. As for alcohol, I’m not sure a beer from a buddy is remotely the same as prescription opioids being provided under the table to a known addict. That isnt just an “oops how could I have known” mistake.
Most people have smoked pot. Unless you include alcohol, or drugs prescribed by my doctor, I’ve never bought drugs in my life
It’s been a long time since the 70s. But I have given a pain pill to someone before. I didn’t think twice about it. But now that we have this fentanyl crises, which was unknown three years ago, things are different.
Three years ago, I’m certainly not going to judge someone for given someone three or four pain pills. Seriously?
Again… context.
We must just live in different circles. I’ve never heard anyone ask for a pill from a friend, seen anyone using drugs that weren’t clearly prescribed for them, or had the slightest urge to share my prescription with a friend. I just don’t think sharing opioids is remotely as common as you do.
I live in the world of Ball Four, read it again. I live in the world where Harvey said pain killers were prevalent in the clubhouse.
I live in a world where there are 100,000 fentanyl deaths each year. Where a 16 year old girl dies last week because her friend gave her a pain killer.
I don’t know what world you live in, but it’s not like anything I’ve experienced.
I live in a world where people are stuck with the consequences of their own decisions. Even terrible decisions. In my world, when you choose to swallow pills some dude just hands to you, you get what you deserve.
I live in a world in which I do not care if you choose to pop pills handed to you by buddies, and if the pills kill you I just move on with my life.
“I live in a world where people are stuck with the consequences of their own decisions.”
As much as that is a utopia I would love to live in, it’s not based on reality.
As far as dying because your friend hands you a pain pill, you are nuts.
Do you honestly think that is what I honestly think? C’mon man.
Players liked him.
I would also like to sign with an MLB club
Only if I can get an opt out.
I’m hoping to sign with a major league club too.
You and I both sit and I believe we both have about an as realistic shot of doing so as Harvey does.
I hope this deadly drug dealer doesn’t get another MLB job.
So you’ve never gotten drugs from a friend. Man, you’re a saint.
@halo11fan only once but my friends are dicks and make me pay first
Bruce… very funny.
I heard that the Mets may have an open spot in their bullpen that Matt could try out for.
I’ll always have a soft spot for Harvey, love to see him make a comeback
And I’m hoping to date Margot Robbie. Let’s see what happens first.
Come revive your career as the Mets closer
Why is this a story? Oh,he played in New York. As always, too much Met and Yankee news. Enough to quit my subscription.
Please do.
Any contract offer must contain a daily $200.00 allowance at Bev Mo. And be shipped and delivered to the clubhouse.
I wouldn’t mind him in the Mets bullpen, he can’t be worse than what they have
And then raise hell on Eppler here when he has his first bad outing?
@YankeesBleacherCreature He deserves to be called out. Its Eppler’s fault that we are in this mess in the first place. The relief staff stunk even before Diaz got hurt. Had a chance to get quality MLB relievers during the trade deadline and the offseason and he blew it. You can’t win without a good pen. The Mets pen with Diaz was probably around the 20th rank in all of the MLB. Without Diaz I see it as a bottom 3 bullpen. You aren’t gonna win many games with Drew Smith pitching, one of the worst relievers in the game
Dude you are a broken record. We get it. You don’t like Eppler. Give it a rest.
@rct you don’t understand what its like to have Eppler as a GM. Every time he makes move, he acts like he just cured cancer with a toothpick in his mouth. I dislike almost every move hes made since becoming the GM. Theres a reason why the Angels fired him. Theres a reason he was the Mets 10th choice. Hes gonna be the only GM in baseball history to have a 400 million dollar payroll and finish around .500. Hes historical, historically bad. Give me 400 mil and this farm system and I garentee we would win the NL East and finish with around 120 wins. 29 out of 30 GMs would probably be able to accomplish that. Our problem is that we have the 1/30 GMing this team
Are you for real? if so, man, you’re a bad baseball evaluator. Why waste your time with a sport you’re so bad at?
Yeah I don’t see it happening
Maybe if he’s finally off the junk…
They all can’t be substance enjoyers and champions like members of the 86 Mets 🙂
“Obviously I’m not pumping mid-to-upper-90s anymore — at least not yet…”
Man, it would be cool if he came back and had a second career as a high leverage reliever, but this comment makes him sound like Al Bundy/Uncle Rico.
Needs to go overseas and play in NPB or KBO,if he fails there,maybe Mexico
Yes Matt, so am I.
Yankee bleacher creature – sounds like you are weak if you’re afraid of getting addicted to opioids. Not tough like you think for refusing them
So am I Matt, so am I.
I don’t wanna work , I wanna be Matt Harvey all day
And I’m hoping for a pony
Should have voted for Vermin Supreme!
I find the general insinuation of Harvey signing in Philly repulsive. Ew, no. Horrible pitcher and horrible person.
Harvey the Rabbit would be a better option.
He’s done.
Possible that he can play a few more years as a 1 and done DFA guy like Weber. I can think of quite a few things I’d rather not be doing at 34 y.o. having made $28 mill.
If he gets a minor league deal maybe Eric Sogard will too..His anti vax thing helped him get blacklisted when he is as good as a lot of other bench players.
he should come back as a closer