VIERA, Fla. – Matt Harvey cannot win or lose on the field for a while now. In the clubhouse, however, his credibility will receive a decision.
Take your pick – mountain or molehill – when it comes to the magnitude of Harvey strong-arming the Mets about where he will work most to make his arm strong again. But by insisting he do a bulk of his rehab in New York rather than where the Mets wished, in St. Lucie, Harvey will face scrutiny about his reasons for doing so.
And not just from Jeff Wilpon and Sandy Alderson. But from his peers. As David Wright – captain and conscience of this group – said, “I told him his actions are going to speak louder than his words.”
In his own words, Harvey has insisted he wants to be in New York rather than at the Mets’ minor league complex to support his teammates and learn the league better, and not because the supermodel volume is slightly better in the Meatpacking District than the Chipotle on St. Lucie West Boulevard.
We will see if his actions match.
The Mets and Harvey reached a compromise whereby he will rehab in New York when the team is home and in St. Lucie when they are not before going near full-time to St. Lucie around June 1 when he is ready to pitch off of a mound. It is any player’s collectively bargained right to only be stashed at a minor league facility for 20 days.
But most teams have their rehab facilities at their minor league sites in Florida or Arizona because, among other things, it assures good weather plus devoted attention away from the daily grind of the regular season. DL players fit in an uncomfortable space as part of the team, but not. Active players do not like waiting for a trainer because someone who is not even eligible to play that day is getting treatment. They loathe going back to the clubhouse during the game and seeing a DL player – particularly a young one – lying on a couch watching TV rather than cheering for the team on the bench.
Wright made it clear he was not telling me anything that he has not told Harvey in several face-to-face chats on this subject, and also as a middleman in a conversation with Alderson. Wright said he sees both sides of the argument. He noted that the best players of recent Mets vintage, such as John Franco, Mike Piazza, Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez and himself, have done the majority of their rehab in St. Lucie. However, he says he trusts Harvey’s sincerity in believing his best locale for physical and mental improvements following Tommy John surgery is with the big league team.
Thus, Wright has counseled Harvey that he must follow through on those words with actions. Wright told Harvey when he was rehabbing the fractured bone in his lower back and had to be with the team because the rehab doctor was in New York, he made sure he arrived super-early to make sure he did not take away doctor/trainer time from active players. He advised Harvey do the same, and also to mimic what he has done in March – attend the pitchers’ meetings and be an active cheerleader and information dispenser in the dugout. The message is simple: You have to be a supporting actor at Citi, not a star of the City; a dispenser of high fives, not a staple of Page Six.
“It’s been my philosophy that I am an employee, not the employer,” Wright said. “The advice I gave him was to find common ground with the Mets. To definitely do what is best for him, but also not to lose sight that he is the employee, not the employer.”
All parties involved, including Harvey’s representative, Scott Boras, used the term “amicable” to describe the resolution. For now, the tension is defused. But it is clear Harvey is a strong-willed player and the Mets – despite the compromise – are not getting the outcome they want. Thus, the relationship necessitates watching as Harvey – a Connecticut native and Yankees fan growing up – accumulates service time. He is a Boras client, after all, which means every day brings him closer to inevitable free agency, to accepting the kind of deal the Mets currently have shown no philosophical or financial willingness to enact.
But that is not until after the 2018 season. In the short run, before he gets another chance to prove he is Justin Verlander 2.0, Harvey’s most important pitch will be about his credibility in his own clubhouse.