Matthew Silva - Poor Matt Harvey

 

Matt Harvey deserves better.

Unfortunately, all he gets is the partial tear of the UCL in his elbow, the process that will likely lead to Tommy John surgery and the almost inevitable chance that he will miss the entire 2014 season. The injury has been a shock to us all, including Harvey. There is no one to blame. Harvey has been managed properly by Terry Collins and the Mets organization and it is simply an unfortunate turn of events in an otherwise stellar season from the Met’s flamethrower. His future, seemingly pushed back to 2015, puts the entire organization one step back.

The narrative for this franchise has changed whether anyone wants to admit it or not. This season was supposed to be the last struggle with futility, where all we needed was to foster our young pitchers and wait until the books cleared to fill in the lineup and Matt Harvey gave us more than we could have imagined. Harvey’s performance this season could have brought the Mets a second consecutive Cy Young award. R.A. Dickey’s path last year was a great feel good story, but Matt Harvey’s potential winning would have been entirely more enjoyable and fulfilling.

A homegrown talent who rises through the system to grab the trophy at the age of 24 in the same year that he started the All Star Game in a home setting would have validated the direction that this club has set its sights on. No one expected R.A. Dickey to perform that way, not even the Mets. Matt Harvey was targeted by the team, drafted and made out to be something he truly was. Think about this for a moment. How many players who were hyped in the way that Matt Harvey was and truly rose to the challenge of meeting those expectations? Teams have players they say are can’t miss and finally the Mets pulled it off.

That dream now becomes a nightmare. The Mets now have to veer off course from their destination of truly competing in 2014. Of course we will have the likes of Zack Wheeler hold down the phenom fort and we can look forward to the young arms of Noah Syndergaard and Rafael Montero in the summer, but next season will have more shades of 2013 than bright lights of future seasons unless the Mets drastically update this roster in the way that they seem to promise the fan base.

Matt Harvey has carried this team and produced just about every enjoyable moment this year for the Mets. Hopefully, Harvey’s pending rehabilitation will go without a hitch and he will return to a different team than he left it. Maybe by that time, the Mets will be fielding a more competitive and considerably more talented team that will need one final piece. That team will need the ace that Matt Harvey is.

He deserves that much.