Even Matt Harvey is coming to the realization he probably won’t pitch in 2014.
“I haven’t wanted to chalk this up as a completely lost season, but I can’t make those decisions,” Harvey said Tuesday.
Harvey said he was pointing to Tuesday as the day he pitched off a mound for the first time since undergoing offseason Tommy John surgery, but that plan was scrapped.
“[The possibility] has always been there, it was just a matter of me not wanting it to happen,” he said of the canceled session. “I still want to pitch this year and that’s always going to be on my mind. I’m coming to realize that I can’t write myself in the lineup and that’s becoming a little more realistic.”
General manager Sandy Alderson said that as the date got closer for Harvey to take the next step in his rehab, the team and its medical staff revisited the right-hander’s schedule and decided to slow things down, but insisting there has not been a setback.
“We don’t want him pitching in a major league game sooner than 11 months from the time of the operation,” Alderson said before the Mets opened a homestand Tuesday against the Brewers. “That’s about the last week of September. That’s a very narrow window to try to hit, so from our standpoint — after talking with our doctors — it makes sense to slow him down a little bit.”
Alderson also contradicted Harvey and said the pitcher was never scheduled to throw off a mound Tuesday and instead it was just “a slope.”
Either way, Harvey will continue to only throw on flat ground until further notice. He is throwing from 120 feet regularly, as well as 150 feet on occasion.
“I think he would like to have in the back of his mind that he threw once or twice [in the majors] and that everything went fine, so that he goes into spring training with that kind of peace of mind,” Alderson said. “I think there are other ways that we could provide that kind of peace of mind, whether it’s instructional league or some other setting that’s yet to be determined.”
Despite saying he understood the decision, Harvey admitted to being frustrated with the timing of it. He was told last week by rehab coordinator Jon Debus in Port St. Lucie.
“I was a little surprised,” Harvey said. “We had written up that plan for some time and to hear four of five days before making a new milestone, to push back even farther was a little disappointing. Sometimes things aren’t going to go as smooth as other things and it’s a process. I’ll just keep my head down.”
Terry Collins added that unless the Mets were in playoff contention, he couldn’t foresee a scenario in which Harvey would pitch for the Mets in 2014.
“I don’t know why we would rush him for any other reason,” Collins said.
Like Harvey and Alderson, Collins tried to take the long view.
“I’d love him to pitch this year because I think it means we’re in the hunt,” Collins said. “But I don’t find it drastically important because the one thing we do not want to have is some type of major relapse because this guy came too fast and he sits out 2015. That ain’t happening.”
That’s on Harvey’s mind, as well — especially with the rash of pitchers having to undergo the surgery a second time.
“I definitely think that had something to do with it,” Harvey said. “I’ve hit every step extremely well with no issues whatsoever. I think the ball is coming out a little bit too well and they want me to push back a little bit. … We were hoping to come back a little early and history has shown a certain time period of returning to play is becoming more and more important to proper recovery.”
“I’m completely on board,” Harvey said.