The Mets are going all-in on slowing down Matt Harvey’s rehab from Tommy John surgery.
The right-hander, though, still sounds like he’s having a difficult time with it.
Though manager Terry Collins said he was going to talk to Harvey on Wednesday about scaling back his effort on the mound, Harvey later told ESPN Radio he was throwing “in the mid-90s” during a bullpen session in Port St. Lucie on Wednesday.
After watching Jeremy Hefner’s setback in his attempted recovery from elbow surgery, the Mets are looking for Harvey to scale back even when he’s on the mound.
“One of the reasons why we have tried to back Matt off is because of how he is mentally,” Collins said after the Mets lost to Washington, 3-2, at Citi Field. “The guy is a bulldog. There’s no such thing as low-speed. The phone calls made [Tuesday] were, ‘Look, back down a little bit’ and yet [Wednesday] he went out and threw a 27-pitch bullpen.”
So what’s the answer?
“I’m going to put my head through a wall,” Collins said with a smile.
Harvey repeatedly has said he hoped to pitch in at least one major league game before the end of the season, something general manager Sandy Alderson basically ruled out Tuesday.
“I think the tough part with that is just how good I feel, how good the ball’s coming out,” Harvey said. “I threw a bullpen [session Wednesday] and didn’t miss a spot. I feel like I was easily throwing in the low to mid-90s with pretty much no effort.”
But he also may have learned from Hefner’s situation.
“He felt great the whole time and then once he started facing some hitters, he had some trouble,” Harvey said. “Everybody’s different. There’s no saying that a guy can’t come back in 10 or 11 months and be fine and in some other cases, it might take 13-14 months. For me, I’m going off how my body has felt during this whole process and it’s been nothing but success and as a competitor, I want to move forward.”
Collins said he is trying to get Harvey to throw at a much slower speed.
“I want to see a hump in the throw,” Collins said, meaning he doesn’t want Harvey even approaching 90 miles per hour. “Matt doesn’t know what that means.”
Harvey underwent elbow surgery following last season, roughly two months after Hefner, and the Mets are concerned the transition from throwing bullpens to throwing in games may have been what triggered Hefner’s new injury.