Since 2013, it has been a number of health issues with Matt Harvey.  First, it was Tommy John surgery.  Then, it was the fight between the Mets and Scott Boras over his innings limits.  In 2016, Harvey struggled because of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.  This year, Harvey had a stress reaction in his pitching shoulder.  A large part of that was the fact that the muscles in Harvey’s pitching shoulder had atrophied.

Through all of it, the Mets answer has to have Harvey pitch through it.

Of course, everyone, including Harvey himself, believes all of his issues are mechanical.  As everyone but the Mets seem to realize, Harvey’s problems are all mechanical until they discover the underlying issue that was the real reason why Harvey was struggling.

Well, Harvey is struggling again.  His rehab outings were not truly dominant like you hoped they would be.  After those four rehab starts, none of which lasted longer than 4.2 innings, the Mets still called up Harvey to the majors.

As you can imagine, things did not go well.  Harvey needed 70 pitches to get through just two innings.  Sure, he was able to get his fastball up to 94 MPH, but none of his other pitches were really working.  He was unable to locate anything.  He gave up seven runs, all earned, on eight hits.

After the start, the Mets solutions had a similar refrain.  Harvey had mechanical issues.  He needs to just push through it.  However, the Mets and Harvey had a fun irresponsible twist this time.  Harvey will start on three day’s rest.

Because that’s been the answer all along.  The answer hasn’t been to let Harvey rest, get health, and get to full strength.  No, no, no, no, no.  The real solution is to have him pitch on short rest despite his not having thrown at least five innings since June 9th.

This is just crazy, and it seriously makes you question where Boras is.

Boras was a guy popping off at the mouth as the Mets pushed for a pennant in 2015.  However, now, as Harvey has had injury issue after injury issue, he’s nowhere to be seen.  It’s almost as if he sees Harvey as damaged goods, so he’s lost interest.  Either that, or he’s been muted by Harvey and the Mets because they’d rather do their own thing than listen to the agent who’s role is to help watch out for the player’s best interests.

Even if all parties want to have Harvey pitch, someone needs to be the adult and say this is not working.  The plan of trying to fix mechanical issues and pitching through it just hasn’t worked.  There’s no reason to believe it will work again, especially when you are trying to do both with Harvey making a start on short rest.

If Harvey struggles tomorrow, maybe he can pitch the following day.  Why not?  The team’s answer has always been to double down on pushing through injuries.  It’s a dangerous game they’re playing, and as a result, Harvey may never be the same again.