With Matt Harvey’s inning total climbing, it is becoming more and more possible the Mets might have to shut the phenom down before the end of the season.
Harvey is at 117 innings pitched this year after Friday night’s seven innings. He is on pace to surpass 200 innings, which most likely would be his limit. Mets manager Terry Collins said yesterday the team will not risk injuring its star pitcher by pushing him in September.
“Always remember something,” Collins said, “we are not — we are not — going to hinder this kid’s health by killing him now when the future is so bright with [Zack] Wheeler coming, [Rafael] Montero coming, all these young prospect pitchers coming. We’re not going to jeopardize what’s down the road for right now. I’m not going to do it.”
Harvey pitched a combined 169 1/3 innings between the minors and the big leagues last year. He is on pace for 249 innings this year. Teams usually try to avoid increasing a young pitcher’s workload by more than 30 innings. Harvey has shown the ability to pitch deep into games in nearly every start this year, which is going to make Collins’ job tricky.
“We’re going to monitor his workload, and hopefully he gets through the month of September,” Collins said.
* Jon Niese will have an MRI exam on his left shoulder Thursday to see how his partially torn rotator cuff is healing.
Niese left his June 20 start against the Braves in the fourth inning after feeling pain in the shoulder. The tear was discovered and he was placed on the disabled list. Niese said he has been doing a lot of rehab on the shoulder, but has not begun throwing. Niese is 3-6 with a 4.23 ERA this season.
“It feels a lot better, a lot stronger,” Niese said. “I’ve been doing a lot of rehab on it and getting a lot better. We’ll see how it goes Thursday.”
* Omar Quintanilla snapped an 0-for-17 streak with a fourth-inning single in yesterday’s 5-1 win over the Nationals. … Josh Satin has reached base safely in 10 straight games and has hit in five straight.