The New York Mets are in a spot that they haven't been in for a while. With a little over a month to play, they have a 6.5 game lead in the NL East and are trying to hold off the Washington Nationals.
Manager Terry Collins has the very difficult task of trying to win while also watching the innings of his star pitchers, like Matt Harvey. As he comes back from Tommy John surgery, the team is being cautious with his innings. They want him available for the postseason, but don't want him burnt out.
Harvey had his start on August 23rd get skipped, a move that was done to give him rest and keep him on track to pitch throughout September. While that was supposed to be the only time that would happen, the new plan is for Harvey to get skipped one more time, according to Collins himself.
TC says it's possible Harvey is skipped again. Warthen said yesterday it was the preference... so long as Mets weren't in tight race
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) September 2, 2015
The Mets do have one thing going for them though, and that's their pitching depth. Steven Matz has returned from his injury and Logan Verrett looked fantastic when he startedin place of Harvey back in August. While it hurts to skip a guy like Harvey, the Mets are positioned to have adequate replacements.
It's a tough sell to Mets fans, who haven't seen the postseason since 2006. And if the Mets start to let the Nationals creep back into the division, skipping starts from Harvey, or Noah Syndergaard may not go over well. The best case scenario is for the Mets to run away with the division over the next week so they can skip these starts without having implications on their playoff hopes. The last thing the Mets want, or need, is a repeat of 2007.