Keidel: Mets Using Harvey Once Until October Is The Definition Of Playing Not To Lose
By Jason Keidel
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Instead of making seminal starts, Matt Harvey will make a single start the rest of September.
This comes after a saga of comments and conflicting statements, after which they arrived at this absurdity -- one more appearance until the playoffs, playing not to lose until it's time to play to win.
And it will fail, because these things always do.
It's hard to stir this soup of agents, players, surgeons and Sandy Alderson. Each seems to have a contrasting message. Harvey is suspended between instinct and impulse, between protection, promotion, and provocation.
If he is to be the Dark Knight, the superhero whose visage is shot into the dark Flushing sky, then he can't be about skipping starts and innings counts. Superheroes don't know boundaries.
Harvey isn't the humble type. He didn't refrain from the spotlight. He didn't demand his handle be removed or changed to a more modest moniker. He embraced all the cosmic and comic correlations.
If he is the next Dwight Gooden or Tom Seaver then he can't be a six-inning, 180-inning wonder, a guy you can kinda sorta count on. Beyond the fact that there's no correlation between pitch counts, inning countours and safety, Harvey has actually gotten exponentially stronger this season.
Since the All-Star break, he has a 1.64 ERA, which is third in MLB. Over his last seven starts, he's 4-0 with a 1.50 ERA and a microscopic 0.81 WHIP. He gave up one run in August.
We saw what happened in Washington with Stephen Strasburg. The Nats still haven't recovered from that mess, and are a few well-placed losses from plunging out of playoff contention.
Harvey's epic ego lends itself to legacy. And you don't build one by telling us you suddenly defer to doctors when you said before the season you were all-in no matter the circumstances.
New York City is one of the few places large enough to fit Harvey's talent, temerity, and sense of self. But he also has to know you don't get inside the historical velvet rope by shutting down before or during the playoffs.
It's easy to bang on Scott Boras -- the self-indulgent agent who often eclipses the stars he represents -- for chirping in Harvey's ear, and infusing the "I" in team. It makes everyone look bad, especially his client, which isn't a concern for Boras as long as Harvey's next deal has more zeroes than a scoreboard.
But it's Harvey's arm, life, career, and call. No one disputes Dr. James Andrews's skill as a surgeon or his care for his well-heeled patients. But his 180-inning admonition is arbitrary. There's no data to suggest Harvey will snap his golden limb in inning 181, 191, or 201.
Tommy John, the patron saint of the surgery Harvey endured, tossed more than 200 innings the season after his maiden operation. You don't have to ascribe to Tom Coughlin's old, caveman mantra that injuries are a thing of the mind to be tired of these abstract physics.
Harvey could blow out his arm playing long toss, on his throw day, or today. Or he could pitch the Mets into the World Series without as much as a tweak in his bionic elbow.
The Mets are thinking about losing Matt Harvey, when they should be playing to win with him.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
