Former New York Mets prodigy turned precautionary tale, Matt Harvey, go another major-league chance on Thursday when the Baltimore Orioles selected his contract to make their big-league roster for the upcoming 2021 season.
The Orioles had a deadline to choose Harvey’s contract today or else he could’ve triggered an opt-out clause that would have allowed any team to pick him up. He received a non-roster invite to Orioles camp earlier this offseason.
The 31-year-old righty continues to hang on to his major-league career by a thread after a swift fall from grace as a once-believed generational talent coming up through the Mets’ minor-league system a decade ago.
He made his MLB debut in 2012 and took the game by storm, posting a 2.39 ERA in his first two seasons, including starting the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field.
After coming back from Tommy John surgery that held him out of the 2014 season, Harvey posted a 2.71 ERA in 2015 as the Mets won the National League pennant. Harvey famously took Game 5 of the World Series into the ninth inning after persuading manager Terry Collins to stay in the game, but ultimately set up the loss that delivered the Kansas City Royals the title.
An ensuing onslaught of injuries, enormous struggles, and battles with the front office derailed his career in Queens, leading to a trade to the Cincinnati Reds in 2018 before catching on with the Los Angeles Angels in 2019 and the Royals last year.
Since the 2016 season, he’s gone 19-34 with a 5.82 ERA.
On a rebuilding Orioles team that is once again expected to be in the cellar of the American League East, Harvey will at least get an opportunity to show that he can still hang around in Major League Baseball. The problem is that he’s pitching in a hitter-friendly park at Camden Yards in Baltimore against a stacked division of powerful teams like the Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Rays, and Boston Red Sox.
Harvey could potentially face the Mets in any of the Orioles’ four matchups against them this season. From May 11-12, they are in Queens before hosting the Mets on June 8-9.
