In the wake of the Matt Harvey drama, Mets manager Terry Collins was asked on Monday if Harvey’s teammates respect him. Per Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal, Collins said, “I can’t answer that. I don’t know.” Collins said he didn’t want to speak for the whole team.
Collins said more with what he didn’t say, which would have been some variation of the word “yes” in response to that question. This seems to imply that there’s some internal strife within the Mets’ organization concerning Harvey. As we learned yesterday, Harvey’s three-day suspension for no-showing at Citi Field on Saturday was influenced in some part by previous unnamed incidents. So, the right-hander is neither making friends in the front office nor the clubhouse, it sounds.
As Seth Walder of the New York Daily News reported on Sunday, infielder Jose Reyes said of Harvey, “We’re disappointed. We have to understand, we’re employees. You have to come to your job every day. We count on him.” He added, “Everybody knows here what the rules are. When you miss that, that’s not acceptable.” (I guess everyone’s going to ignore the irony of Reyes criticizing anyone for not following the rules.)
Former Met Paul Lo Duca tweeted criticism of Harvey, saying “he let his teammates down more than anyone.” Bob Ojeda, also a former Met and current SNY analyst, said, “Very disappointing the relationship between the Mets and Matt Harvey has become so toxic.”
The Mets plan to have Harvey return to the rotation to start on Friday against the Brewers in Milwaukee, Marc Carig of Newsday reports. According to Mike Puma of the New York Post, the Mets prefer Harvey to return to start on the road rather than pitch at home on Wednesday to avoid a “hostile environment.”