New York Mets News: Concern about Matt Harvey’s innings

By Nick Ziegler | Sep 4, 2015

Recent New York Mets news is very concerning regarding the innings limit of star pitcher Matt Harvey.

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Harvey missed all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery and with the Mets on the verge of making the playoffs, this is the last thing they want to be worrying about. Harvey’s agent is the infamous Scott Boras, and according to what he told Jon Heyman of CBSports.com, Harvey shouldn’t be pitching more the 180 innings this season.

“These are doctors’ opinions,” Boras said to Heyman. “And club officials are not determining how many innings he can pitch. Matt Harvey would love to pitch. But the surgeon who saved his career and other surgeons consulted have said that for maximum safety he is not to exceed 180 innings for the year.”

With 180 innings being the limit for Harvey according to Boras, that likely gives him two more starts this season with his total already at 166.1 innings pitched. Boras is adamant that this is strictly a doctor’s call on how much Harvey is allowed to pitch this season.

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“This is not a club’s decision. This is a doctor’s decision,” Boras said. “Any club that chooses to defy a surgeon’s wishes is putting the player in peril.”

Mets’ general manager Sandy Alderson plans to have Harvey skip one more start in the regular season and then continue to pitch in the soon to be implemented six-man rotation despite what Boras says. This wouldn’t be the first time in recent years that a great young pitcher was shut down before the playoffs the year after Tommy John surgery, as Stephen Strasburg was held out of the playoffs for the Washington Nationals a few years ago.

“This is not a dispute between representative and player, and club. This is about a doctor providing expert medical opinion regarding the safety and well-being of the player. If the club chooses to violate the ethical standard of the medical opinion, that is strictly their prerogative. I’m not a medical doctor. I don’t make these things up.”

Boras is obviously thinking of the future for Harvey, who will be getting a massive contract from somebody when he hits free agency, as he is one of the best young pitchers in the game. The 180-innings limit does make a lot of sense for Harvey, as it would be extremely dangerous for him to set a new career-high in innings pitched in his first year removed from Tommy John surgery.

Harvey pitched 178.2 innings in 2013, and that’s a number that may be shattered in the Mets make the postseason and have some success.

It will be very interesting to see how this situation progresses, as the loss of Harvey in the playoffs would be a huge blow to the Mets.

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