Mets pitcher Matt Harvey will undergo season-ending surgery on his shoulder, according to his agent.
The surgery will address thoracic outlet syndrome, and the hope is that Harvey will be ready for the start of the 2017 season.
“The doctors clearly recommended that he have this done, mainly so that he can be ready for ’17,” said Scott Boras, Harvey’s agent, via ESPN’s Adam Rubin. “The rehab on this is six months. Now, if there was a small window of a season, you might be able to take a shot. It’s actually Botox, which relaxes the muscles. That’s not a long-term solution.
“The only way this is going to be treated appropriately — and obviously we don’t want to do anything to affect next year — is to get this surgically taken care of.”
Harvey was 4-10 with a 4.86 ERA in 17 starts in 2016, and Boras said that his shoulder explains those numbers, saying that it has been an issue since spring training. While the Mets are optimistic, shoulder surgeries are even more risky than elbow surgeries, and many a pitcher has struggled to come back from them.
Of course, there was a significant controversy last season when the Mets and Boras got into a very public spat over Harvey’s innings in 2015. It’s not clear whether there’s any link between his workload in 2015 and this injury, but you can bet there will be renewed questions about that in the days to come.
