Sandy Alderson rips Scott Boras over Matt Harvey innings cap

He begins the article by calling Harvey a hypocrite for what he has done, suggesting that Mets fans should be mad, furious, and take out that anguish on the pitcher. “I have wanted to pitch every single chance I get”, Harvey wrote.

This reeks of Boras convincing Harvey, with Harvey then lying about 180 always being the limit. “It will be a compromise between the doctors and the Mets organization to get me, and the team, to where we need to be for our postseason run”.

The Mets didn’t buy it. Sandy Alderson said, “What I heard from Dr. Andrews doesn’t line up with what Scott is saying”. With the Mets at the top of the division, the club obviously wants Harvey to be available for a possible playoff series.

The New York Mets are the first place team in the NL East and they are looking to win it all this year.

The Matt Harvey innings limit story has been mostly a non-issue this season. Harvey has thrown 1661/3 a year after missing the season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Asked directly if he planned to do so, he said only: “Like I said, I’m focused on Tuesday”, a phrase he repeated often.

Boras and the Mets have been on the same page twice already concerning Harvey. “I’m thrilled that we’re into this conversation because that means I’m healthy and pitching and had a lot of innings throughout the year”.

Many of them, judging from talk radio, are also suspicious of the Harvey-Boras combination, feeling that Matt himself wants the innings limit and that Boras is being used as his mouthpiece.

“The plan is a reasonable workload in the playoffs”, Ricco said. The team can not force a player to participate if a doctor has advised the player to sit out, and as written here last Sunday, Harvey’s innings guidelines were set at 180. When they skipped one of Harvey’s starts in favor of Logan Verrett in the thick of a pennant chase a couple of weeks ago, some said it implied the Mets weren’t serious about contention in 2015 – criticism that disappeared when Verrett threw an eight-inning gem in Colorado.

We have to assume Harvey is being honest about his health, given his 4-1 record since the All-Star break and, more significantly, an 0.88 WHIP. I would not give that up for anything.

The Mets have operated all season under the assumption that Harvey was on board with their plan. Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg, another Boras client, was shut down after a September 7, 2012, start and did not participate in the postseason over a concern about mounting innings as he returned from Tommy John surgery. The Mets said no. Harvey said nothing. It’ll certainly be handled in-house, whatever goes on, and we’ll make the best decisions moving forward. If you don’t, you feel like you let your teammates down. The Nationals have won just three Postseason games since shutting him down early.

Why didn’t the Mets stick with their plan of using a six-man rotation for at least part of the season?