The New York Mets’ run to the 2015 World Series was largely built on a young and impressive group of arms in its starting rotation. No pitcher broke out on a national stage more than Matt Harvey, and it appears the Mets’ young ace is open to sticking around Citi Field for the long-term.
However, it remains to be seen if anything will get done in that direction, considering Harvey is under team control through the end of the 2018 season.
“I think whatever comes up is going to come up,” said Harvey, via ESPN.com. “I’ve never shied away from it. I’ve never said I wouldn’t consider it. But I haven’t heard anything considering that.”
The Mets have been on record saying that no current talks are underway to ink Harvey to anything long-term just yet. Just like many other deals, Spring Training seems to be a ground for talking those kinds of deals and with the start of it just around the corner this is a deal worth looking in to.
Harvey enters the 2016 season as a first-year arbitration eligible player, and will make $4.325 million this season
In 2015, Harvey went 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA and 188 strikeouts in 189 1/3 innings after missing all of the 2014 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. He added another 26 2/3 innings in the Postseason, pitching to a 3.04 ERA while striking out 27 in four starts.
Harvey’s season was rife with controversy however, as talked about a shutdown related to his innings limit eclipsed his pitching in September. Eventually, the Mets, Harvey, surgeon James Andrews, and agent Scott Boras agreed on a plan, which led to Mets manager Terry Collins lashing out after pulling Harvey from a start after just five innings.
New York will start having to make decisions in regards to their young pitching staff soon – Harvey get more expensive in arbitration over the next two seasons, and Jacob deGrom will enter arbitration for the first of four seasons following the 2016 season. The Mets are clearly going to have to pick and choose which members of their young rotation they want to commit to a long-term future with , andHarvey just may be the first of that group to get one done – or the first one to go.
[ESPN]
