Mets pitcher Matt Harvey has filed a grievance against his own team.
The grievance came after the Mets hit Harvey with a three-game, unpaid suspension for failing to appear at a game Saturday night. Harvey claims he didn’t show due to a headache. Though, Harvey did play golf that afternoon.
The situation is really bizarre. Harvey claims that he played golf until early in the afternoon on Saturday, when he came down with a strong headache. He says he advised the team of the situation. When Harvey showed up on Sunday to pitch, the Mets told him of his suspension. Weirdly, the Mets announced that Harvey’s suspension began as of Saturday, yet, apparently didn’t inform him until Sunday.
As The Big Lead notes:
Harvey and the Mets have been at odds for a while and this incident may be a crossroads in the relationship. The formerly dominant right-hander was fantastic during his first three major league seasons. Then in 2016 he was awful, posting a 4-10 record with a 4.86 ERA, 1.47 WHIP while dealing with injuries. Surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome ended his campaign early.
This year in six starts Harvey is 2-2 with a 5.14 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and a -0.2 fWAR.
While injuries are certainly a part of Harvey’s decline, the 28-year-old should still be able to get things done on the mound. He has the pure stuff to be a great starter. The thing is, distractions off-the-field, like repeated public romances with supermodels, have coincided with his diminished stats on the mound.
The Mets and Harvey are clearly not on the same page in the macro or micro sense of the term, whether things went down this weekend exactly like Harvey said or not. Like most people understand, it’s generally a bad look to play golf all day and then say you’re not feeling up to going to work. Especially in this case, considering that Harvey wasn’t even scheduled to pitch that day.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
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