Mets Rumors: Matt Harvey Was Almost Demoted To AAA
The latest New York Mets rumors about struggling starting pitcher Matt Harvey may surprise some, as the Mets contemplated demoting him to the minor leagues.
New York Mets rumors have revolved around starting pitcher Matt Harvey in recent days, as the team brain storms how to get their former ace back on track. Harvey has struggled mightily this season, and there have been a number of reasons thrown around as to why he has struggled and how the Mets could fix it.
There were discussions about possibly skipping Harvey’s next start to give him some time to clear his head, while other people thought it was just some mechanical problems. There was another solution tossed out that no one discussed, which was demoting Harvey to the minor leagues to work out his problems.
According to Marc Craig of Newsday, the Mets discussed sending Harvey down to the minor leagues to try working out his problems, but Harvey talked his way to staying with the big league club.
“We dissected every angle there was,” said manager Terry Collins. “In the end, knowing this guy like we do, he wants to pitch. He wants to fight through it. He isn’t going to run and hide. He wants to get out there. So we’re going to do that.”
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Harvey must have been very influential, as he not only talked his way out of a demotion, he talked his way into staying in the rotation. Harvey will make his next scheduled start on the road against the Washington Nationals, as he will look to get some retribution after the Nationals hit him hard last week at Citi Field.
This talk of Harvey being demoted came about in large part because of what the Nationals did to him, as Harvey had the worst start of his career. Harvey gave up nine runs, six earned, in 2 2/3 innings as the Nationals pounded him early and often.
While Harvey will not be demoted now, and probably won’t be in the near future, the Mets need to figure out a way to get him pitching just okay. That would be an improvement over the disaster that he has been this season. Harvey has seen his ERA and K/BB rise exponentially this season, as his career marks coming into 2016 were 2.53 and 4.78 respectively but are sitting at 5.77 and 2.87 thus far this season.
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While the thought of demoting someone as established as Harvey seems extreme, the Mets need to explore every avenue available to get him back on track. The workload from last season coming off of Tommy John surgery, which was the most innings ever for someone coming off of Tommy John, seems to have caught up to Harvey. An abbreviated Spring Training because of a urinary tract infection and the Mets attempting to lighten his workload probably didn’t help either.