VIERA, Fla. — Take note, Matt Harvey. Stephen Strasburg knows all about traveling down that Tommy John highway.
Strasburg burst onto the scene in the majors with a rocket right arm in 2010, then had to go through the ups and downs of reconstructive elbow surgery. His advice to Harvey is take it slow and don’t judge day by day.
“I learned the hard way,’’ Strasburg told The Post on Sunday at Space Coast Stadium.
Strasburg blew out his elbow near the end of his rookie season with the Nationals and underwent surgery Sept. 3, 2010. He did not make his next major league start until Sept. 6, 2011.
“It can flip on you,’’ Strasburg said of the rehab process. “You’ll feel great one day and the next day it’s terrible. The best advice I got was, ‘Look where you were at the start of the month and then at the end of the month. Don’t look at where you were yesterday.’ ”
With so much attention on everything Harvey does, it will be difficult to take the wider view, but that’s what Harvey must do. Strasburg turns 26 in July, Harvey turns 25 this month.
The Mets star didn’t have his surgery until Oct. 22, so he probably will not return before the start of the 2015 season.
After making five starts at the end of 2011, Strasburg made 28 in 2012 and 30 last season. Following last season he had surgery to clean out the right elbow, and said he feels tremendous heading into 2014.
“I feel great physically, I’m really excited for the year,’’ Strasburg said. In 2012, he finished 15-6 with a 3.16 ERA. Last season he was 8-9, but his ERA was 3.00.
“Sometimes you are just going to have years where the numbers don’t pile up and you think you are going to have to work harder to make them what you want them to be,’’ Strasburg said.
More solid advice for any young pitcher.
“I’ve come to understand it’s not how much you work, it’s how smart you work,’’ he said. “It’s a different beat.
Recovery is huge, once you learn how long it takes for your body to recover and how often you need to let your body relax and just get back to full health.
“That’s when you can really accomplish the durable things that pitchers do, the James Shields of the game, who do it year in and year out.
“Spring training is spring training. You don’t want to go in here with guns blazing.’’
Guns blazing used to be Strasburg’s way until he figured out a new way.
Strasburg and Harvey have the same agent, Scott Boras.
“I told Scott, if Matt ever needs anything, call me,’’ Strasburg said. “I’ve been through it. I know by judging how hard he works he should be, hopefully, fine.’’
The Nationals, now managed by Matt Williams, who replaced Davey Johnson. After winning 98 games in 2012, they won 86 last season.
“We’re trying to develop not necessarily the young up-and-coming team, but more of a veteran team,’’ Strasburg said. “We learned that initial success doesn’t guarantee anything. We need to keep working hard, keep trying to get better, not freak out if things aren’t going our way. We kind of let those things bother us a little too much.’’
With all the talk about the Mets achieving 90 wins, Strasburg noted: “It is definitely tough to do that, especially with how competitive our division is. A lot of things have to go your way and you also have to play great baseball, day in and day out.
“I think the teams that do get to 90 wins every single year, those are the teams that are never going to beat themselves. They might get in little ruts every now and then, offensively or pitching-wise, but they’re not going to make the mistakes on the fundamentals, that just won’t happen.’’
Valuable words.