Mets news: Boras says Harvey’s innings limit should be 180

By Danny Abriano | Sep 4, 2015

Scott Boras, the agent for Mets pitcher Matt Harvey, says that Harvey’s innings limit for this season should not exceed 180 and that it’s been mandated by doctors. Mets GM Sandy Alderson says that isn’t the case. Harvey has yet to weigh in. Happy Friday!

In an article that was written by Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, Boras is quoted at length on Harvey’s innings limit and Alderson weighs in on the situation.

“This is not a club’s decision. This is a doctor’s decision,” Boras said. “Any club that chooses to defy a surgeon’s wishes is putting the player in peril. …”Expert opinion by medical practitioners is not a soft number. There are no soft numbers. These are medical practitioners providing opinions about when a pitcher is at risk, and when a pitcher isn’t at risk.”

Alderson, who was reportedly agitated that Boras reached out to him recently with a new innings limit, maintains that Harvey has a “soft” innings limit.

“We had a soft target, and we really don’t expect to go much above it,” Alderson said.

Harvey, who threw 178.1 innings in 2013, has thrown 166.1 so far in 2015. He has already had one start skipped in order to conserve his innings and will likely be skipped again within the next two weeks.

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Before the season, Alderson and Boras were on the same page about the innings limit for Harvey and how the situation would be handled.

The Mets have maintained since this past winter that the plan would be for Harvey to pitch in October should the Mets reach the postseason.

Boras concluded that the Mets would be in the wrong should they continue to let Harvey pitch once he hits 180 innings.

“This is not a dispute between representative and player, and club,” Boras said. “This is about a doctor providing expert medical opinion regarding the safety and well being of the player. If the club chooses to violate the ethical standard of the medical opinion, that is strictly their prerogative. I’m not a medical doctor. I don’t make these things up.”

Alderson is not expected to give in to Boras and shut Harvey down, a source close to the GM told John Harper of the Daily News.

Thoughts:

There are lots of ways to pick this apart, so here it goes…

The Mets, from the moment Harvey was diagnosed with a torn UCL until now, have handled things in a prudent fashion. They encouraged Harvey to get Tommy John surgery, slowed him down along the road to recovery even though he felt great, refused to let him pitch in 2014 even though he wanted to, and have managed his innings so far this season in an effort to keep him healthy and have him available for the playoffs.

Despite what Scott Boras says and despite what some doctors have allegedly told him, there is no scientific evidence that proves pitching a certain amount of innings leads to injury — whether it’s before or after Tommy John surgery. There is also no scientific evidence that proves pitching a certain amount of innings more than you ever have while returning from surgery will result in injury.

Does it make sense to assume that the more innings someone pitches the higher the likelihood is that they’ll suffer an injury? Yes. But there’s nothing out there that proves that assumption.

As an aside, the fact that Boras claims this has everything to do with Harvey’s well-being and nothing else is laughable. Harvey’s well-being is tied to Boras’ paycheck. This is about money, because with Boras, it always is. Money trumps all.

Could this be Scott Boras making a scene in order to be able to point his finger at the Mets if something goes wrong? Yes. Could this be Scott Boras making a scene in order to make the Mets look bad due to the way the Carlos Gomez situation was handled? Perhaps. Could this be Scott Boras making a scene in order to take pressure off Harvey if he actually wants to get shut down? Maybe.

However, the last possibility above seems flawed.

If Harvey, who allowed just two runs in the entire month of August, is feeling fatigued, wouldn’t it have made sense for him to keep this internal? Now that Boras has gone through his mouthpiece, Heyman, this 180 innings limit thing is something that will be put point-blank to Harvey on Friday night in Miami. And he’ll have to answer whether or not he wants to be shut down.

If Boras truly was playing ‘bad cop’ for Harvey, wouldn’t it make sense for him to say something like ‘Matt is fatigued?’ Instead, Boras cited the opinion of doctors, which is entirely arbitrary given the fact that there’s nothing proven regarding innings limits and their impact on injury prevention.

Matt Harvey has been speaking about pitching in October of 2015 ever since the 2014 season ended. It’s extremely hard to believe he would allow himself to be shut down if the Mets get there. If Harvey is hurt, he should be shut down. If Harvey is fatigued to the point where he’s worried about getting hurt, he should be shut down. But there’s no reason to believe either of those two scenarios is at play at the moment.

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