Mets’ Matt Harvey says he will pitch in playoffs in most brilliant way possible

Harvey played the media and pulled off quite a coup in order to tell his story on his own time, in his own way. Sure, the media is going to have a field day, and there’s reason to understand why from their perspective. Regardless of whether you’re a fan or not, this was well executed by Harvey. And he played the media like a fiddle while honoring Mets fans’ wishes.

Ain’t even mad, annoyed or frustrated. You can’t be. If anything you’ve gotta respect how Harvey went about announcing the news. It wasn’t a long article and he kept things short and to the point. There’s still a plan in place to limit his innings. But between the media push, the controversy of an innings limit -- created or not, and lack of clarity on the situation in general, I don’t blame him at all for pulling this off.

An excerpt from Harvey’s article:

“As an athlete, when your surgeon explains to you the risks of exceeding a certain number of innings, it can be alarming. You listen. I love to play baseball and I love winning even more. I would not give that up for anything. I also know I want to be able to play and win for a long time. But there has never been a doubt in my mind: I will pitch in the playoffs. I will be healthy, active and ready to go.”

As a member of the media, I couldn’t help but laugh. It might have been the most brilliant player-scheme of the season and Harvey pulled it off flawlessly. Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal commented “Why didn’t he just say this yesterday? Was he saving the scoop for himself?!?!” on Twitter. Rosenthal also said he didn’t mind Harvey breaking the news on his own but he “could have saved himself a lot of trouble.”

In a world where a sports reporter’s job is to report the news of the players first, I get it. You don’t want to be scooped. By a player no less. Except, players are at the mercy of the media every single day. It’s part of the job. They get that and so do the media. Whether there’s been a hot dispute going on between the Mets and Harvey, Saturday’s quote about the innings limit essentially bought time for Harvey’s piece to go out and more articulately express his thoughts.

Will Mets fans look past Saturday’s anger-inducing debacle and see Harvey’s point of view? That’s for you, the fans, to decide. It’s possible that Harvey just wanted to talk about it in his own way. Perhaps he just wanted to give the team extra time to lay out a plan. Maybe he wanted to mess with the media. Or it’s possible he had a change of heart. All are options.

“I understand the risks. I am also fully aware of the opportunity the Mets have this postseason. Winning the division and getting to the playoffs is our goal. Once we are there, I will be there.”

The story was that the Mets had no plans to shut down right-handed starter Matt Harvey, who is currently at 166 1/3 innings. The team stated that Harvey’s surgeon Dr. James Andrews did not set a hard limit on his innings. Harvey’s agent Scott Boras had said that there was a limit -- 180 innings.

Then, Harvey had dropped the proverbial bomb on Saturday, saying that he’s “always considered” 180 innings a limit and he “won’t answer questions about the playoffs,” according to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo at the time. Asked to comment on the innings dispute between Harvey and the Mets, Andrews essentially was asking to be left out of it. However, he’d also leaned towards an innings limit.

“I’m sort of caught in the middle of it,” Andrews told Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. “That’s their business. They both know what I’ve said, and I don’t want to get into it. The main thing is to do what’s best for Matt’s career. He really wants to play, and they’re in the playoffs. But it’s their problem.”

It appeared that, at the time, Harvey and Boras had left the Mets in an awkward situation. Particularly when Harvey had previously said that he’s been eager to be a part of the rotation down the stretch.

Harvey is scheduled to make his next start on Tuesday and the Mets said on Friday that they would skip his next start. The thing of it was, were Harvey shut down after 180 innings, it would’ve brought about flashbacks from when the Nationals shut Stephen Strasburg down and then tanked in the 2012 playoffs.

That would’ve left any potential postseason participation in jeopardy. Boras commented on Friday that the 180-inning limit “is not a negotiation.” Mets general manager Sandy Alderson had disagreed, saying that it was only a “soft” estimate and that Harvey’s innings were being closely watched.

The situation was becoming a combustible tightrope of baseball politics that didn’t appear to show any signs of dying down anytime in the near future. Whether this does the trick or throws gasoline on the fire for fans, well it’s up to the fans to decide that.

But consider that Harvey never backtracked on his words when he stated that he wanted to pitch in the postseason. I guess we’ll truly find out when the postseason is upon us and the lights get brighter.