Mets to Blame for Matt Harvey Injury?

Athletes get injured; there’s just no way around it. It happens and it is no one’s fault. But in the case of Matt Harvey’s devastating elbow injury, are the Mets to blame for the severity of it?

It seems that Harvey was being treated for forearm tightness for a month now. And for some reason, the Mets never ordered an MRI until things got worse following his start last Saturday.

“Forearm tightness is usually the first sign of an elbow problem,” a former major league pitcher told the Daily News. “If he was getting treatment on it, I can’t believe they didn’t do an MRI earlier.”

Yes, why not have an MRI when the problem first arose, especially with someone as valuable as Matt Harvey, who throws as hard as Matt Harvey and could be susceptible to elbow problems?

And given the Mets history of botching injuries, you’d think they would have been more careful.

Sandy Alderson did not address that on Monday, but he did lay the groundwork for a possible defense, suggesting surgery is inevitable when elbow problems arise.

“These injuries are often progressive; it is conceivable no surgery would be necessary, it’s conceivable no surgery would be necessary at this time and necessary at some time down the road,” Alderson said.

Still though, you’d think the Mets would have taken some kind of action; if not putting him through the MRI machine, perhaps ordering him to throw fewer sliders, which put more stress on the elbow. Or maybe putting him on the 15-day disabled list just to get him some rest with the hope that could it make things better.

But according to Dr. Alderson, there was apparently nothing the Mets could do to avoid this. Maybe he is right, but it seems like once again, the Mets have handled an injury in a dubious fashion.