Cutting elbows and pulling teeth. Paging Dr. Alderson.
In an interview on WFAN on Tuesday, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson says the final call on whether phenom Matt Harvey will go for Tommy John surgery to repair a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament will rest with the young ace. Surgery likely would force Harvey, who rose to superstardom with a 2.27 ERA and 191 strikeouts, to miss the entire 2014 season.
“I think he’s got most of the control,” Alderson said. “It’s his body, and he ultimately decides what’s in his best interest. All we can do is advise and recommend.”
Alderson said he expects a plan for treating the 24-year-old Harvey’s elbow to be in place within the next few weeks. He warned even an initial decision to avoid an operation – made in concert with doctors including famed Alabama surgeon Dr. James Andrews – would not mean Harvey is out of the woods.
“If he doesn’t have it initially, then it becomes an ongoing proposition because at any point in his rehab there can be a setback, there can be a reconsideration, etc.” Alderson said. “And that would be true up until he begins throwing competitively next season.”
The GM also explained some of the organization’s frustration with young shortstop Ruben Tejada, a regular in 2011 and 2012 who slumped in the early months of 2013, was injured then demoted to Triple-A, not to be heard much from again. When rosters expanded on Sept. 1, Tejada was not among the Mets’ call-ups, and Alderson damningly said the 23-year-old’s flaw is his work ethic.
“You know, one of the problems with Ruben is, it’s like pulling teeth,” Alderson said. “Extra batting practice, extra this, extra that, doesn’t happen unless someone else is insisting on it. And that’s what we need to see. We need to see a commitment to improvement. And he’s very young, he got to the big leagues at an early age. He was essentially given a regular position at an early age. And now he’s been put in the position where he’s going to have to earn it, so we’ll see what he does when he comes back up.”
Tejada is batting .288 with a .337 on-base percentage and .379 slugging percentage for Triple-A Las Vegas, which opens the Pacific Coast League playoffs tonight.
“We’ll see Ruben, hopefully in a week or so,” Alderson said.