MLB

Despite Harvey injury, Wilpon must keep promise of Mets spending for next season

Here is something that is useful to remember if you are a wounded Mets fan this morning, and something that is imperative to remember if you happen to be one of the men who own the team:

This was Fred Wilpon speaking on the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 13, offering to Mets fans something of an early Valentine, addressing what should be expected for the 2014 season:

“The payroll will be commensurate with anything we’ve ever done, because we can do it. People have to come to the ballpark.”

It is important to remember that on Feb. 13, 2013, Matt Harvey was considered a building block, an excellent young arm that was certain to be a part of the Mets’ foundation going forward. He was not yet the Dark Knight of Gotham. He was not yet being compared to the very best pitchers in the game.

On Feb. 13, 2013, in fact, Harvey was very much a second banana on his own team behind Zack Wheeler, who would soon start tongues wagging when he threw live BP. On Feb. 13, Harvey was a kid with a world of potential and a few eye-popping starts and all of 59 1/3 innings to his credit.

To be clear: Wilpon wasn’t making his pronouncement of sound fiscal health, and future financial largesse, based on having Walter Johnson Jr. on his pitching staff. So while the men who own the Mets might still be recovering today after having the worst kind of sledgehammer dropped on their heads, they’d better not expect anyone — least of all their own fans — to be sending sympathy notes.

And they’d better still be aiming at 2014 to be an important year.

Will they compete for a championship? No. But even with Harvey in perfect health, that would have been a pie-eyed ambition. Next year was about resurrecting an old Wilpon family chestnut — meaningful September baseball — and about making a run at a wild-card slot. Does the task become steeper without Harvey? Of course it does.

Does Harvey’s absence allow another mailed-in offseason?

It had better not. And the men who own the Mets had better be prepared to keep to whatever plans they had about strengthening this team, and not allowing the abyss to run to six full seasons of non-competitive baseball. The tough talk of February had better be able to stay intact by November, regardless of whether Harvey is a part of 2014 or not.

Their credibility was at stake anyway, their show-me fan base eager to see if the Wilpons’ claim of financial freedom was legitimate. It should be even more so now. The Mets have crowed about their pitching depth. But even if Harvey pitched to a 0.01 ERA next year, he already knew — and Wheeler learned Monday — it hardly matters if the Mets offense remains somewhere between inept and impotent.

That was so well before Harvey slid into the MRI tube. It remains the case now. Sandy Alderson did the right thing yesterday, shipping Marlon Byrd and John Buck to the win-now Pirates for a kid infielder, Dilson Herrera and, more importantly, guaranteed at-bats for Travis d’Arnaud and Matt den Dekker.

It’s a small start. The bigger push is still to come, or so we were promised on the morning of Feb. 13. Losing Harvey is a staggering blow. But Alderson said it himself Monday: “This is what many successful teams must go through from time to time.”

Life goes on. And so must a plan for 2014, a real one, an ambitious one, or else who will ever again believe the men who own the Mets have the wherewithal to back up their promises?