Boras: Mets' Harvey Is Healthy, But Why He's Struggling Is A Mystery
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Whatever the reason may be for Matt Harvey's slow start, his agent, Scott Boras, is laying no blame at the Mets' door.
In an interview with the New York Post on Wednesday, Boras, who has had previous disagreements with the Mets over his client's workload since the right-hander returned from a year off following 2013 reconstructive elbow surgery, said he completely understands why Harvey pitched as much as he did last season.
"I don't lay any fault to the Mets organization because the success of the team mandated the interruption of that sequencing," Boras told the newspaper.
Last season, Boras, arguably sports' most powerful agent, wanted the Mets to put an innings cap on Harvey, including him not pitching in the playoffs. But following an uproar, that idea was scratched. The super-agent, Harvey and the team eventually got on the same page and the ace right-hander went on to play a big role in the Mets getting to the World Series.
But something has been amiss to start this season. Boras said there must be a logical explanation for why Harvey is 2-4 with a 4.76 ERA. Harvey's fastball has lacked its usual explosiveness and as a result his strikeouts are down. Opponents are hitting a robust .311 against him.
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Harvey threw a total of 216 innings last season, including the playoffs, a substantial jump over the 178 1/3 he tossed in 2013 before going under the knife to repair a torn ulnar-collateral ligament. Could that be a reason for his lack of velocity to start the 2016 season? Boras said as far as he is concerned Harvey is certainly healthy enough to pitch.
"When you have a genius, you don't take him out of fifth grade and graduate him from high school," Boras said. "You may graduate him to the seventh grade. But that doesn't mean he doesn't need time and experience to take its course.
"There's something unknown that we're looking at. There's an unknown here that's operating. We're figuring it out as we go," he added. "I'm very confident that Matt is physically healthy and very confident that adjustments will be made."
The Mets have been dominant in the games Harvey hasn't pitched, as they are 17-9 and just 1 1/2 games behind the Washington Nationals in the NL East. The one thing New York doesn't lack for is starting pitching, as evidenced by the continued excellence of fellow aces Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz. Throw in ageless Bartolo Colon, who is 2-1 with a 2.56 ERA in six appearances, including five starts, and Mets manager Terry Collins can afford to be deliberate in how he handles Harvey.
"As it starts to get nicer and a little bit warmer, maybe then we'll make a determination if the arm strength is going to come back or if it's going to be one of those years where, due to all the innings last year, we're going to see the effects of it," Collins told reporters on Tuesday.
The Mets begin a three-city, 11-game road trip on Thursday night in San Diego. Harvey is slated to pitch Sunday against the Padres.
