Matt Harvey throws to first base for the out in the sixth inning against the Chicago Cubs during game one of the 2015 MLB National League Championship Series. (Getty)
Matt Harvey has caused the Mets organization some headaches this year. But in many ways, the 26-year-old is an organization’s dream: A young, affordable power pitcher.
Harvey, who will start Game 5 of the World Series Sunday night, arbitration-eligible in 2016 and will probably get an increase from his 2015 salary of a little more than $600,000. Harvey is not eligible to become a free agent until after the 2018 season.
Spotrac, which compared Harvey’s stats with other pitchers of his age and level, predicts Harvey will take a 6 year contract of a little less than $150 million when he becomes a free agent.
Jacob DeGrom is in a similar situation. At 27, he makes a little less than $560,000 but he is not arbitration eligible until 2018.
The Angels originally wanted Harvey in 2007 for $1 million, when he was a third round pick, but he didn’t want to sign for less that $2 million. But he eventually left the University of North Carolina as a junior and signed a $2.5 million bonus with the Mets in 2010 when he was drafted as their first round pick.
Matt Harvey reacts after closing out the top of the seventh inning against the Chicago Cubs during game one of the 2015 MLB National League Championship Series. (Getty)
In August 2013 he was diagnosed with a partially torn ligament in his elbow and had to have Tommy John surgery in October 2013.
Not allowed to throw a baseball at all for four months after the surgery, Harvey was not happy. His rehab started off with only lifting one-pound dumbbells and throwing a ball on flat ground. Although Harvey’s surgery is common Harvey and his agent, Scott Boras, are concerned about the players health in the future, according to Grantland.
Obviously Harvey, as Boras has expressed, feels at least some anxiety about his long-term health. If Harvey wasn’t the best pitcher in the National League in 2013, he was close to it, so if he stays healthy, he should be in line for a contract whose value runs into the multiple hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet we live in a world in which one Tommy John surgery for a pitcher is routine, but two is usually a death sentence, and Harvey’s free agency is still three full seasons away. If Harvey makes it over the line, he’ll get that contract, but if his elbow pops again — which it could at any moment — that financial future will be in severe jeopardy.
And to make sure Harvey will get a good deal on his next contract, Boras even took out an insurance policy on his client. This insurance policy comes without exclusions and will protect Harvey in case he suffers another injury, including a career-ending one, to make sure he is still covered, according to ESPN.
In his 2015 season alone Harvey made 29 starts, going 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA, 188 strikeouts and a 1.019 WHIP in 189.1 innings.
