Matt Harvey stands idle as Spring Training nears. All things considered, there is no reason for this. What’s going on?
Matt Harvey stands as a baseball story filled with wild expectations, intrigue, disappointment, and yes – failure.
But it’s a story that is incomplete. Matt Harvey does not have a job in baseball for the upcoming season. No team has even seen fit to sign him to an incentive filled minor league contract.
Matt Harvey is not Ervin Santana (37), Clay Bucholz (35), or Edwin Jackson (36) looking for that one last gasp of major league fresh air before their careers come to a close.
Matt Harvey is 31 and healthy. Assuming he still wants to, he can still get major league hitters out, albeit without the pomp and circumstance that accompanied his earlier 95+ seasons with the New York Mets.
A Peek Inside The Fishbowl
The biggest question surrounding Matt Harvey is the same question that haunted him throughout his days in New York. What does he want out of life?
No one can answer that, of course, except Harvey himself. But from the outside of the fishbowl, the facts supersede speculation as an answer.
Matt Harvey wanted to be Joe Namath, and Derek Jeter combined – the toast of New York and Broadway.
He succeeded in dominating Page Six of the New York Post until he didn’t when finally he faded away quicker than Tiny Tim.
The rest of Harvey’s traveling saga limped through Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and Oakland with varying but only pedestrian results.
Today, Matt Harvey stands zero chance of being handed a job as a major league pitcher. But there should be a one-hundred percent chance he should have in hand a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training.
Why not is the question that begs an answer?
Scott Boras And Still No Job?
Consider that Harvey has the high-profile and most successful agent in baseball at his side in Scott Boras, and the matter becomes even more mysterious.
If the squeaky wheel gets oiled first, is it possible that Matt Harvey is not on the phone every day with Boras pestering him with information on his latest efforts to get him signed with a team?
The inference being, of course, that he is so beaten up mentally that he doesn’t give a hoot about his career anymore. Is this possible?
Or, could it be that Boras looks at his client saying to himself, “This guy wants me to work for him, but he’s not even taking the time and effort to keep himself in shape…”
Speculation leads everywhere, but the fact remains that at the tender age of 31, Matt Harvey does not have a job as a professional ballplayer.
Connor Byrne, writing for Major League Trade Rumors, makes a passing note yesterday about the Kansas City Royals being interested in adding a starting pitcher to their rotation.
Harvey is mentioned along with fellow free-agents Taijuan Walker, Danny Salazar, and Aaron Sanchez as a person of interest to the rebuilding Royals. In his next sentence, though, Byrne is quick to point out that Harvey is the only one over 30.
But that’s it. You can scour through pages of Google, and you will not find another mention of Matt Harvey by any team, even those like the Yankees and Cardinals, who are known to take a flyer on a player, hoping to find lightning in a bottle.
Matt Harvey: The Enigma Begging Questions
As usual, I have only questions and no answers. But in retrospect, there has always been more questions than answers about Matt Harvey.
It’s hard to find another player with the tendency to shoot himself in the foot more than The Dark Knight.
Still, with no particular empathy and certainly no sympathy for Harvey, I find it hard to believe he has forgotten how to pitch. And even more of a stretch, that he has lost the desire to pitch.
There has to be something more.
How can it be, for instance, that Edinson Volquez ( age 36, WAR -0.2), Felix Hernandez (34, -0.1), Hector Noesi (33, -0.3), and Tyler Anderson (30, -0.3) all have signed contracts with major league teams for 2020 – but Matt Harvey has yet to be linked to one?
Another question with no answer…
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
