Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Matt Harvey may opt out of his minor league deal with the A’s.
Harvey told Slusser that his opt-out can be triggered on Thursday. If there is any interest in anyone using him as a starter at the big league level he’d probably take it given that it’d give him a chance to showcase himself as he heads into an offseason of free agency.
Though, really, one has to wonder if that’s such a great thing, because his big league performance so far this year has been abysmal. Harvey was released by the Angels last month after putting up an ugly 7.09 ERA with 39 strikeouts and 29 walks in 59.2 innings of work over 12 starts. He hasn’t been shooting the lights out in the minors, really, having given up six earned runs in 15 innings over three starts, but even if the minor league season ends in a few days, that final impression may be a better selling point for him than getting shellacked in a few September starts in the bigs. He’s making $11 million from the Angels either way.
I can’t help but wonder if his best bet is to stay with Oakland -- which is making a playoff push right now -- and see if he can’t get called up and snag some of the magic fairy dust the A’s have sprinkled on Homer Bailey of late. There are worse places to fix oneself, after all, than in the pitcher-friendly Oakland Coliseum.