Mets Limiting Harvey's Interviews After Cryptic Comeback Tweet
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey will only be taking part in "group interviews" -- for now -- while he rehabs from Tommy John surgery, a Mets spokesperson told Kevin Kernan of the New York Post.
The right-hander raised eyebrows on Twitter over the weekend when he wrote "2014 Harvey day will happen," an apparent response to some tweets about prospect Noah Syndergaard.
"We're looking to have him ready to go for 2015," Mets general manager Sandy Alderson told the Post. "There is no looking to have him ready for '14."
Harvey, 24, seemed to have finally come to grips with the prospect of not pitching at all this season following reconstructive elbow surgery. And then came Saturday's tweet, which was later deleted.
The club told Harvey the next day that "individual interviews" would be a no-go in order to "temper expectations" this early in his rehab, the Post reported.
Kernan said he asked Harvey on Sunday whether he's been "shut down verbally, too."
The pitcher replied: "Apparently."
Harvey has been taken to task for some off-the-field moments before. He called out Joe Benigno on Twitter in December and was ripped in a fiery response from the WFAN co-host. Also last year, Harvey apologized after an awkward interview with Dan Patrick in which he repeatedly touted the company Qualcomm instead of discussing his elbow.
Alderson told Newsday that he doesn't -- and probably still won't -- follow his star hurler on Twitter.
"Look, I can't control what he tweets or says by other means," Alderson said of Harvey, who got into a social-media spat with a Yankees fan in January. "If that's how he feels, that's his perspective and we'll see where it goes."
Harvey went 9-5 with a 2.27 ERA in 2013, recording 191 strikeouts and just 31 walks before being shut down with a tear in his pitching elbow.
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