April 3, 2018. 14 months ago. Matt Harvey takes the mound for the Mets. For the Mets. 14 months ago.
He pitches 5 innings. Five Shutout innings. One hit.
He’s got that look in his eye back,” said Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who has caught Harvey off and on since 2013. He added later: “He didn’t have his best stuff but he was still in it. He wasn’t going to give up.” (via NY Times)
I woke up this morning and opened my eyes to my son’s old toy Batman Castle and immediately thought of our old pal TDKOALA.
14 months ago.
Just 15 months ago he was walking round in MH33 socks. You gotta be pretty confident in yourself to walk around in custom socks. 15 months ago.
13 months ago Matt found himself in Cincinnati.
The Reds version of Matt was…..OK. Nothing amazing. Some nights terrible. Some nights could eat some innings. Lots of 380 foot outs.
On to Anaheim and a one year $11 million contract. More 380 fly balls that are finding the parts of the fence that are less than 379 feet away.
Now he’s hurt, and when he comes back, will he have a spot in the rotation?
What’s Matt’s future from here? Back-end warm body because someone has to pitch? A mop-up guy?
What happens in 2020? I can’t imagine anyone will pay $11M for this version of Matt Harvey. Will a team take one last flier on him at a low price tag? I guess? Pitching is pitching, even with a 7.50 ERA. Some teams give starts to the likes of Wilmer Font so anything’s possible.
April 3, 2018 was Matt’s last good start as a Met. The next one was 4 runs in 5 innings, which is what passes for Good Matt in 2019. Then another 4 runs in 5…then 6 runs in 5…then the bullpen…then he got left behind during a visit to Cincinnati.
August 11th 2018 doesn’t look too bad. 7 innings, 2 runs, 7Ks. Maybe that’s what the Angels thought they were buying.
Remember that after some waffling about shutting it down in 2015 he went out there and pitched trying to win a World Series for himself, for you and for me. For that we should always be grateful. Who knows what damage he may or may not have done…but he showed up for the World Series and pitched great.
But that was 2015, and that pitcher no longer exists.
From here, who knows?
