Three aces in the Red Sox trade fountain
By Rick McNair
Oct 17, 2015; New York City, NY, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Matt Harvey throws a pitch against the Chicago Cubs in the 7th inning in game one of the NLCS at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
Matt Harvey: 13-8, K/9 8.94, BB/9 1.79, 2.71 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 3.15 FIP, 3.24 xFIP, 4.4 WAR.
Would New York even consider shipping Harvey out? There were a few spats during the regular season by the 26-year-old right-hander with Mets management. Are the Mets petulant enough to use this as justification to explore trading away a present day potential Tom Seaver?
The public fallout will probably be similar to the nuclear fallout at Chernobyl and just as deadly in a public relations sense. But GM’s do stupid things and GM’s can also frame a story to make today’s hero into today’s expired cold cuts, especially after Pedro Martinez has bolstered Harvey as the second coming of none other than Pedro himself! So, the spin would have to extraordinarily complex to convince the Met faithful that this was just a top notch trade.
There has also been a public dustup with Harvey’s agent – Scott Boras. Knowing that down the road, Harvey is a free agent in 2019, is the usual confrontation with Boras the Mets just might toss in the negotiations to another ball club, especially after Boras questioned Mets management on Harvey’s use. Anyways, a potential plus of all the dynamics is that Harvey can take heat and throw heat and that is an advantage in preparation of playing in Boston.
The central focus of the issue was a pitch limitation on Harvey, who had missed 2014 with Tommy John surgery. The end result was a public and limited comeuppance by Harvey, who did a nifty Fred Astaire tap dance to extract himself from further embarrassment.
What really could temp the Mets is the sudden wealth in arms that have surfaced. With such abundance comes the opportunity to plug real or perceived holes elsewhere and Harvey just may be the golden ticket for that.