Tommy John. The two words every pitcher does not want to hear – outside of Miguel Cabrera, of course. And we don’t mean the pitcher himself, like he’s a time-traveling cyborg sent from the future to kill John Connor. We mean the surgery, obviously. Sadly, New York Met phenom and perennial Cy Young hopeful, Matt Harvey, just heard those two words. How about that to start your weekend?
Harvey, who in only 26 starts this year amassed 191 Ks along with a 2.27 ERA and 0.91 WHIP, was most assuredly the factor behind 50% of Mets season tickets purchased for the 2014 season. With this injury, hopes seem to be dashed already for the Queens crew next year. He will surely be missed by the Mets as they try to regain some sort of purpose in Gotham City, leaving David Wright to fend for himself. With Jose Fernandez getting shut down like the government because of an innings limit, Matt Harvey was just about the only pitcher who could chase Clayton Kershaw this year for Cy Young. Although Harvey had an innings limit himself, he still had a few starts to go before his 190-200 innings cap was approached, which would have allowed him to pad his stats a little more. Instead, he tore his elbow ligament and won’t see the mound of a regular season game until 2015.
Harvey, 24, still has plenty of time to prove his worth before he becomes arbitration eligible and makes the mega-bucks. And with the recent success of Tommy John surgeries nowadays, it’s not like he has a lot to worry about during his time off. First, he has a smoking hot girlfriend that enjoys his non-Nevernudeness. Second, he’s getting paid to watch baseball. Third…do we need a third with those first two? For Harvey, it will be trying at times to sit and watch the game you should be playing in for over a year, waiting for that opportunity to get back out there. No doubt that will be difficult. However, if you have your second career as a Qualcomm pitch-man to fall back on you really should have no worries.
R.I.P. Matt Harvey’s 2014 Season.
