Today, Sandy Alderson announced that Matt Harvey has a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. He will likely be shut down for the remaining of the 2013 season, and Tommy John surgery cannot be ruled out. If Harvey does undergo the procedure, he will miss the majority, if not all of the 2014 season.According to Alderson, Harvey had swelling in his forearm, and did not experience pain in his elbow before his last start, just tightness. He will undergo another MRI once the swelling goes down in his elbow.
"This is not good news, obviously." Alderson told reporters. "There is plenty of time for us to see how he responds in the near term, but there will always be the open question of how long that ligament will hold up. This is not a career-ending injury under any stretch of the imagination. We're fortunate we have a lot of pitching depth in our organization."
"I'm going to do everything I can so I don't have to get surgery," Harvey said. "If the pain continues or gets worse, something will have to get done."
This is probably the worst news that Mets could have received this season. Harvey was having an unbelievable year. In his first full season, the 24 year old righty posted a 2.27 ERA in 26 starts, while striking out 191 in 178.1 innings. Now, not only will the Mets lose him for the rest of this season, but he'll likely miss the entire 2014 campaign as well.
At this point I'm assuming he will undergo the surgery, but that's pure skepticism on my part. If its a torn ligament, the only way it can be corrected is through surgery, and at 24 years old, Harvey needs to get this fixed as soon as possible.
I honestly believe that the Mets medical training staff should be fired on the spot. Not only because of Harvey's injury, but because of David Wright playing through a serious injury, Jenrry Mejia pitching with bone chips in his arm, Scott Rice going out almost everynight with a tired arm, Shaun Marcum rushing back from the disabled list, Jeremy Hefner continuing to pitch with forearm pain, etc.
The Mets are certainly snakebitten when it comes to injuries, but the medical staff needs to take the blame for most of the injuries in 2013. They could've been avoided if handled properly.
As for Harvey's future, it will depend of whether he undergoes the surgery or not. The plan right now is to have him get treatment, see if the swelling goes down, and see how badly the torn ligament really is. If Harvey goes under the knife and has the surgery, expect him to miss most, if not all, of the 2014 season.
Luckily the Mets do infact have nice pitching depth throughout the organization, so finding someone to eat up innings won't be a problem. However, the chances of these pitchers duplicating Harvey's production are slim to none.
Right now, it's going to be a wait and see approach. Either way you slice it, the Mets are a cursed franchise.
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