Matt Harvey scheduled to pitch March 6
By CM Towle
New York Mets right-hander is tentatively scheduled to pitch March 6th vs the Detroit Tigers after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2013.
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Mets pitcher Matt Harvey last saw action on August 24 of 2013 and he underwent Tommy John surgery two months later. According to ESPN New York, Mets officials are tentatively scheduling Harvey to pitch in the team’s first home Grapefruit League game on March 6th. He’s technically due to face batters on Friday for the first time since having the surgery. However, Harvey downplayed that, saying batters would mostly just be tracking his pitches and not swinging. He has been regularly throwing off a mound lately, and he began rehabbing late in the 2014 season.
The March 6th game begins at 1:10 PM EST and will be the first televised MLB spring training game by SNY.
The reports coming out of the Mets camp are hopeful and excited because of how Harvey has been feeling, and now scheduled to pitch in a game. In 2013, he started in 26 games and posted a 2.27 ERA. He pitched one complete game and had 191 strikeouts in 178.1 innings pitched. In 2012, he started in 10 games, but still had a 2.73 ERA. The Mets are understandably hopeful that they have their ace back.
It’s a stark contrast to that other New York team, the Yankees, who are headed into the season pretty much conceding that ace Masahiro Tanaka’s elbow could blow at any time. Tanaka has a slight tear and elected not to have surgery after last season and the Yankees didn’t pressure him into it.
On the other hand, Harvey wasn’t 100 percent on board with the Mets proposed plans for immediate surgery and rehab. There was public fighting initially about some of the details, but the Mets didn’t back down and now Harvey has a clean bill of health and is ready to step back on the mound in a game. Mets manager Terry Collins has even said they won’t let Harvey complain about being pulled in meaningless innings, or if they decided to conserve him in certain situations.
It’s not to say that pitchers should be pushed into having surgery against their will, but at the same time, the team paying them a huge salary should have some say in their investment. If only to avoid beginning a season with an ace’s status under a dark cloud of doubt.
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