New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey moved Sunday to scuttle talk that he might abandon the team in October to recover from Tommy John surgery.
Harvey wrote Sunday in the Players’ Tribune that “I will pitch in the playoffs.”
The Sunday article comes after days of criticism over Harvey’s planned limit of 180 innings for the year in which he came back from the debilitating elbow surgery.
Going into Sunday, Harvey had pitched 166 innings and had the Mets fortunes been as most expected at the start of the season, shutting him down after two more starts with about two weeks to go might have passed with little notice.
But the Mets are now in first place in the National League East, four games ahead of the pre-season favored Washington Nationals after Sunday’s games.
Disputes went public in the past few days between Harvey and his agent, Scott Boras, on the one hand — who had said the 180-innings cap was a hard limit — and the team and the medical officials on the other — who said they expected him to be available one way or another for the key stretch run and the hoped-for playoffs.
Harvey’s self-penned article said that, despite days of reports in the New York press, he is “communicating with my agent, my doctor, [general manager Sandy Alderson] and the entire Mets organization. I can assure everyone that we’re all on the same page.”
He said an agreement will be reached that will not result in the worst fears of Mets fans — a September shutdown leaving a short-handed pitching staff as a division championship (and potentially more) hangs in the balance.
“Together, we are coming up with a plan to reach an innings limit during the season. It will be a compromise between the doctors and the Mets organization to get me, and the team, to where we need to be for our postseason run.
“I understand the risks. I am also fully aware of the opportunity the Mets have this postseason. Winning the division and getting to the playoffs is our goal,” he said.
Ironically, the team standing in the way of the Mets reaching the post-season shut down their ace pitcher in a similar September situation — a young team turning into a contender earlier than thought at the start of the year when an innings limit was decided on.
In a much-criticized move, the Nationals shut down Stephen Strasburg as planned. They were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the St. Louis Cardinals, losing a decisive game five — traditionally a game started by the ace of a four-man post-season rotation — when the pitching couldn’t hold an early 6-0 lead.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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