Many an USA sportsbooks predicted the New York Mets would win close to 90 games last season. When it was all said and done, the Metsies scrambled to get to 70 wins. They weren’t bad per se, as they were unlucky in the injury department, especially the starting rotation. Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, Zack Wheeler and Seth Lugo were all sidelined for significant periods, and only Jacob deGrom was able to throw 200 innings last season. To avoid running a hospital instead of a bullpen, general manager Sandy Alderson announced on Monday that the team will hire a “high performance director” at the top of the medical department which “will allow us to incorporate more technology related to exertion, recovery and a host of other things that we follow with biometrics.”
Alderson said, additionally, that new manager Mickey Callaway and pitching coach Dave Eiland will be keeping track of the pitchers’ offseason throwing programs. Callaway was, in fact, brought on board specifically to address the injury problem, and high in his priority list is Matt Harvey, who has struggled in the past two seasons. the Dark Knight led the Mets to victory in the 2015 World Series (and even then he had already had injury issues, and even won National League Comeback Player of the Year that season) but has since dealt with thoracic outlet syndrome and a fractured scapula. He went 5-7 with a 6.70 ERA in 2017, and is 9-17 with a 5.78 ERA in 36 appearances across the last two seasons.
“You want him to be the Matt Harvey he is today. You want to get the most potential out of who he is,” Callaway said. “We don’t need the Dark Knight. We need Matt Harvey to come out and be Matt Harvey on a daily basis and be comfortable with who [sic] he is so he can go out and get the job done.” The manager compared Harvey to Ubaldo Jimenez, whom then Indians pitching coach Callaway helped bounce back in 2013 from an underwhelming couple of years. “[Harvey’s] got to be in a place where he’s accepted for who he is and not shunned for who he’s not being. Living up to expectations like that are [sic] really hard,” Callaway added. “Everybody on our team is going to know it’s OK to fail, it’s OK to make mistakes, as long as we learn from it and become better for it.”
Harvey may or may not need the most help, but he isn’t the only one in need of help. And it will be tough love. “The funny part about throwing? You throw more, you stay healthier,” Callaway said. “It’s not, ‘Ah, you know what, you need to rest today because you’re a little sore. You have to push through that soreness sometimes. Now if you’re injured, you need rest. But if it’s just soreness, you have to rest, recover, and push through it.” on the other hand, “you’re dealing with human beings,” as opposed to “robots,’ which is the Mets new manager won’t rely solely on analytics.
