Sandy Alderson: Matt Harvey Nonsense “Bulls**t”
Sandy Alderson is not sparing any words Sunday in talking about this Matt Harvey/inning limits nonsense.
Alderson spoke with Daily News blowhard Mike Lupica about the sudden and unnecessary controversy.
“The plan last winter,” Sandy Alderson said, “was 185 innings plus the playoffs. Let’s shoot for 185 and see where we are at the end of the regular season and make a decision then about the playoffs depending on the condition of the player. That was before we went to spring training.”
He said Harvey was told of the plan and he was okay with it. Now, Harvey and agent Scott Boras say there was a firm 180 innings limit, set by Dr. James Andrews. Alderson said that is just not true.
“Dr. Andrews didn’t tell me there was a 180 innings limit,” Alderson continued. “That’s Scott. But Jimmy Andrews isn’t the kind of guy who’s going to get into a pissing contest with anybody.
“And by the way? I’m the one who initiated this whole thing when Matt got to 140 innings. I said, ‘Matt, remember, we’re shooting for 185. But given the way things are going, we might exceed that, maybe to 195 instead.’ I told him to call Scott and that we would all talk it over and see what everybody thinks. That’s what precipitated these calls to the doctors. Now it’s as if Scott was the one monitoring things at 140. That’s bulls**t.”
As I have said in the past, both Boras and Alderson have been known to have trouble with the truth. It is more likely that no one is lying, that people asked the questions in a way in which they got the answers the wanted. So the comments from Boras and Alderson are not surprising.
But Matt Harvey’s statements, in which he would not commit to pitching in the playoffs if the Mets get there, were indeed a shock. This is the guy who couldn’t wait to pitch last season, only to be told by management to wait until next year. It was likely thought by everyone that you’d have to pry the ball out of Harvey’s hands in the playoffs. We thought it was all about winning for Harvey. But perhaps we are learning what it is really all about for him — money.
Harvey is due many, many millions in his first trip to arbitration this off-season. If he were to re-injure the elbow and need Tommy John surgery again, he would get a whole lot less. Not to mention what a second surgery would do to his free agency prospects a few years from now.
Before I went online this morning and saw Ken Davidoff’s column in the New York Post, I was thinking that if Matt Harvey begs out of the playoffs, the Mets should trade him. Do they really want to have such a player on the team, who walks away when the team needs him the most just to protect his future salary? Besides, the Mets have plenty of young pitching without him.
But I hope it does not come down to that. I hope Harvey comes to his senses and realizes perhaps the team is bigger than he is.