New York Mets: Recent Matt Harvey drama is ridiculous

The New York Mets are in the MLB Playoffs for the first time in a while and that seems to have fans on the edge of their seats already.

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One of the big stories to come out for the Mets was that Matt Harvey missed a mandatory workout at Citi Field on Tuesday. Mostly the reason for the bashing of Harvey again is because of what transpired with him and his agent Scott Boras about his innings limit not too long ago.

It was about a month ago that work came out that Harvey was on a strict 180 innings limit and would be shutting it down before the postseason. That obviously didn’t happen, as Harvey pitched magnificently in the game against the Cincinnati Reds to clinch the National League East for the Mets. Harvey is also scheduled to pitch for the Mets in the first round of the playoffs.

While it is never good for anyone to show up late for work, the reality of life is that it happens to all of us. The outcry from people about Harvey’s latest mistake goes back to the distrust that has been created from the innings situation and the growing fear that Harvey is going to leave the Mets as soon as he can in free agency.

Forgetting about the paranoia that Harvey is going to leave one day, the Mets simply don’t need these distractions heading into the playoffs. It was great to see one of the leaders of the team, Curtis Granderson, take a strong stance in supporting Harvey when he really needed it about whether or not this was a big deal.

Oct 4, 2015; New York City, NY, USA; New York Mets right fielder Curtis Granderson (3) celebrates with teammates after defeating the Washington Nationals 1-0 at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

“Not at all. Everybody has to look at it from this way: Have you ever been late before?” Granderson said to Mike Vorkunov of NJ.com. “If you can answer no then it’s obviously a huge question. But you think back to it, everybody has been late at some point in time over the course of their life, their career, whatever it happens to be. It happens. We’re human. We’re going to sleep through the clock, we’re going to misread the time, a battery is going to die on us – especially because we rely on technology so much. All of those different things are going to happen at some point in time and it’s going to continue to happen because we’re human.”

“First and foremost, he was here,” Granderson said to Vorkunov. “He was just late. We all have been late at some point in time. I was late in spring training. You get a chance to talk to your guys, the coaching staff, the front office – you apologize for your actions. He still got his work done. He didn’t want to throw and he didn’t. He wanted to run, he got that in. He was still able to accomplish everything he wanted to, just an hour later. That’s all it was.

“I don’t think anybody on the team has looked at it more than that. Obviously on the outside everybody is going to say any and everything about it. Regardless, he’s going to be ready to play for us.”

The points that Granderson brings up are very good ones, as Harvey showing up late to a workout isn’t the end of the world and will, in fact, have zero impact on the Mets’ chances in October. The real harm of Harvey missing a workout is the backlash that it causes in the media and to some Mets fans that are ready to run him out of town.

This situation is one that could have been avoided by Harvey showing up on time, but was also made worse by not keeping it in house with October baseball upon us.

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