As expected, New York Mets starter Matt Harvey will be ready by Opening Day for the 2015 season. The right-hander is scheduled to have a soft innings cap, but will have to deal with a shorter outfield as the team is adjusting Citi Field's dimensions again.
Harvey hasn't pitched since suffering a partially torn UCL in his pitching elbow late in 2013. He underwent Tommy John surgery to repair the ligament damage after it was deemed a better option than rehabbing and attempting to pitch through the tear. Before going down for the year, Harvey posted a 9-5 record with a 2.27 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in 26 starts.
He was eager to return this past season, hoping to pitch at some point in September, but the team continued to guide him through a gradual and prudent rehab process. The good news about that is Harvey will now be ready for opening day and will be under a "soft" innings cap, according to Mets' general manager Sandy Alderson. This means he won't be shut down at the end of the season unless he suffers some sort of setback. Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg was shut down in his first full season after Tommy John surgery and the team was eliminated from the first round of the playoffs without him.
That's the good news for the Mets' pitching staff.
The bad news is that the team is once again moving in the fences at Citi Field. Alderson revealed the revised dimensions on Tuesday, which has the adjustments coming to right-center field -- again. The deepest point in that part of the ballpark originally measured 415 feet from 2009-2011, which was reduced to 390 in 2012, and will now be further reduced to 380.
"We're talking about creating a little more excitement, a little more entertainment at the ballpark, which I think goes hand-in-hand with scoring," Alderson said in a recent interview, via the New York Times. "That's not going to appeal to baseball purists. But we need more than baseball purists to fill the ballpark."
Alderson is right about that. The Mets have had an average attendance of 26,528 in 2014 and 26,366 in 2013, which were their lowest rates since they were at Shea Stadium in 1997. Such numbers are unacceptable for being in the New York market. The adjustments hope to create more offense on their home field, where they were out-homered 71-59 in 2014.
The Mets look to be competitive in 2015 with improvements to their roster as well as a shortened outfield.
