Matt Harvey is a source of intrigue for everyone except the teams that can provide a remedy to his unemployment. Something’s going on here – what is it?
Matt Harvey has all but fallen off the face of the planet. His Twitter account, based on what we see, has not been updated since 2017.
Harvey’s agent is the renowned Scott Boras.
And yet if you search Google for “scott boras matt harvey,” the latest entry dates back to when the Mets traded Harvey to the Cincinnati Reds when the free-wheeling agent labeled his send-off as a “fresh start.”
As fans of baseball know, that start is anything but fresh now. There’s mold growing on the career of Matt Harvey, and I have yet to find any reason why that is so.
Matt Harvey: Not Even A Bite
Matt Harvey, as it stands today, doesn’t even have an invite to Spring Training from a major league team.
The Kansas City Royals, for instance, invited to their camp standouts such as Eric Skoglund? Foster Griffin? Brady Singer (No. 59 prospect, per MLB Pipeline)? Jackson Kowar? Daniel Lynch (No. 61 prospect) to camp.
Hopefully, the Chicago Cubs have lockers for each of the pitchers they’ve invited to camp.
Their list includes such well known and achieved pitchers – right-handed pitchers Jason Adam, Oscar De La Cruz, Dakota Mekkes, Brandon Morrow, Caleb Simpson, Brock Stewart, and Ben Taylor. Then they’ll have left-handed pitchers Rex Brothers, Danny Hultzen, Tyler Olson, C.D. Pelham, and Wyatt Short, on hand just to be safe.
So it is left only to wonder if the perfect lyrics of Bob Dylan explain: “There’s something going on here, and you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?”
No, I don’t. None of this makes sense. If I could dial Matt Harvey up on my iPhone, I would, as I know you would – because you are a fan and you care – to ask him “What’s up?”
Harvey: Speculation Abounds – Pick One
But we can’t do that, leaving us only with speculation until one day the mystery is solved. Among the scenarios, it is reasonable to ask:
- Is Matt Harvey content with his life as it is without baseball?
- Is Harvey experiencing personal or health issues that prevent him from performing at the level necessary to get major league hitter out consistently?
- Does Matt Harvey have business deals in line, offering him a promising future?
- Or, perhaps he’s waiting for an offer from a TV Network for a cush job as an analyst.
- Or, is it that Scott Boras, for reasons only he knows, sends the call from Harvey to an underling?
- Or is it, and this is the most chilling scenario, that Matt Harvey has lost the desire to do the work necessary to make a comeback?
Tell me; I can’t tell you. What I do know as a Mets fan, though, is that Matt Harvey is and will always be a member of the Mets family.
Life intervenes sometimes, and the best-laid plans and promises of the future do not hold.
The Mets, throughout their history, are not immune from the stories about players who tried but failed to hit the mark of a Mike Piazza, Tom Seaver, and even a Jerry Grote or Bud Harrelson.
Count Dwight Gooden, Lenny Dykstra, Darryl Strawberry, and Wally Backman among those who have fallen short of expectations.
Matt Harvey: A Tickle Of Interest?
For Matt Harvey, there appears to be a tickle of interest from the Boston Red Sox, who requires a starting pitcher to replace David Price, now a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But it is also noteworthy that Collin McHugh, Danny Salazar, and Jason Vargas are all listed before Harvey in the report.
Matt Harvey, The Dark Knight, continues to confound all who have followed his career. We are still waiting for the next chapter to be written – with the fear it might be the final chapter.
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.
