Sandy Alderson says Matt Harvey will not pitch in 2014
By Hayden Kane
The New York Mets and their fans cannot wait to see ace pitcher Matt Harvey back on the mound. Unfortunately it looks like they will officially be left waiting until 2015.
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Speaking to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, general manager Sandy Alderson squashed the possibility of Harvey returning to the mound this season. Despite Harvey’s absolute insistence that he will pitch this season, it sounds like the Mets will have him take all of 2014 to rehab from Tommy John surgery.
This is consistent with the recent news that Harvey’s rehab process had been slowed down. And while Harvey would like to get those first couple rusty starts out of the way this year rather than at the beginning of 2015, Alderson insists that he can throw in other settings (from Rubin’s report):
"“I think he would like to have in the back of his mind that he threw once or twice and that everything went fine so that he goes into spring training with that kind of peace of mind. I think there are other ways that we can provide that kind of peace of mind, whether it’s in instructional league or some other setting. So that’s yet to be determined.”"
It is hard to be critical of any team’s handling of their young star pitchers at this point. It seems that every pitcher hits the disabled list at one point or another, many of them with Tommy John surgery. Coddled pitchers go on the shelf just the same as overworked pitchers do.
On the one hand it seems that would mean the Mets shouldn’t worry so much about rushing Harvey. On the other hand, they are unlikely to be in contention at the end of the season, so there is no point to trotting their ace out there just for the sake of having him pitch in regular season games.
We will see Harvey again, but not until 2015.