Former New York Mets manager Terry Collins is not finding any joy in the fall of Matt Harvey.
On Tuesday, the day the Mets traded Harvey to the Cincinnati Reds, Collins admitted that the pitcher’s demise has not been enjoyable for him to watch, and offered him some advice going forward.
“I love Matt Harvey,” Collins said, via Dom Amore of the Hartford Courant. “I love him like a son. We went through a lot of wars. I saw a guy, when he got to the big leagues, within two seasons he made himself, if not the best, then one of the top three pitchers in all of baseball. So what happened the last few years, injury-wise and how it affected him, was really tough to see and go through for him.
“I just hope he just goes and catches his breath, and doesn’t stop the work process that it’s going to take to get back. I told him last year, ‘Matt, your only problem is you set the bar so high, you expect so much of yourself that anything besides that is not going to be good enough in your eyes. You’ve got to learn to become a little bit different guy.’ I just hope he bounces back. … I just wish him the best.”
Collins left the Mets after the end of the 2017 season, and his new manager hasn’t found helping Harvey to be any easier. A change of scenery just had to happen.
