The Curious Case of Matt Harvey

The Dark Knight’s time in the big apple is coming to a close after he refused to be sent to the minors.  The Mets designated Matt Harvey for assignment last week and Tuesday night, the Mets flipped Harvey to the Cincinnati Reds for catcher Devin Mesoraco.

Let’s backtrack a few years and see how it all started for Harvey. He was the 7th overall pick in the 2010 MLB first-year player draft and made his big league debut in July of 2012. In his 10 starts of 2010, Harvey posted a 2.73 ERA with 70 strikeouts in 59 ⅓ innings. 2013 could be his best year stats wise with his 2.27 ERA and a 0.931 WHIP. He made 26 starts and managed to win 9 of them. He posted a 9.64 K/9 and recorded his lowest walk rate of the year at 1.56 BB/9. He was an all-star during the 2013 season and finished 4th in Cy Young voting.

Harvey missed the 2014 season due to Tommy John Surgery. 2015 came, and Harvey and the Mets made a run at the World Series. He posted a 2.71 ERA and averaged just under a strikeout per inning. He made 4 postseason starts 1 in the NLDS, 1 in the NLCS, and 2 in the World Series. He allowed only 9 earned runs in 26 ⅔ innings. After falling to Kansas City in the 2015 World Series, the downhill slope had started for Harvey.

The 2016 season arrived but the Mets had lost the Matt Harvey that pitched for them just months before. In his 17 games that year he posted a 4.86 ERA. 2017 was not friendly to Harvey either. In his 18 stars and 1 relief appearance, he posted a 6.70 ERA.

Now we are at the beginning of the 2018 season, and Harvey is entering his age 29 season. You know, one of the years he’s supposed to be in his prime. The season looked promising for Harvey after his first start of going 5 innings allowing 1 hit while recording 5 punchouts. In his next 3 starts, Harvey allowed 14 runs in 16 innings. At that point, the Mets made the decision to move Harvey to the bullpen. In the 6 innings of relief he pitched the past 2 weeks, he has allowed 7 runs.

Which leads us to the new scenario of what’s next for Harvey. He will take what’s left of his talent to Cincinnati and try to rebrand himself with the Reds. He joins the Reds who boast a 5.04 team ERA, which is 4th worst in the MLB. Harvey will work with the team’s new pitching coach Danny Darwin in hopes to improve his mechanics and get back to a decent state of pitching.

Looking at what the Mets received in return for Harvey, it’s easy to see how this deal got done. Mesoraco has been not good in his big league career. Most of his time has been plagued by injuries. His best year was in 2014 when he had a .273 batting average in 114 games. He has failed to hit above .240 every other year he’s been playing. What the Mets do get out of the deal is a good defensive catcher.

All in all this Matt Harvey drama didn’t last long. Now some eyeballs will be on both Harvey and Mesoraco to see how they adjust to their new surroundings. Maybe this deal could be great for both teams if all the players needed was a change of scenery. The deal could also flop and we may never talk about Harvey or Mesoraco again. If I had to make a prediction it will be Harvey will not be on the Reds come seasons end. Whether it’s because he found his groove and was flipped at the deadline, or because he continued his horrid pitching and hit the free agent market.