WILL HARVEY BRING THE HEAT?

Knight fall has to be a concern for Mets

It’s beginning to sound as if the Mets are trying to lower expectations a bit for Matt Harvey, indicating that this is life after Thoracic Outlet Syndrome surgery, and at least early in the season he’ll need to learn how to pitch effectively with a 92-93 mph fastball.

But is winning with less-than-dominant stuff realistic for someone who has always had the mindset of a power pitcher — a guy who embraced the Dark Knight persona and the stardom that came with being able to blow hitters away at 98 mph?

In short, Harvey and the Mets have to be more nervous about all of this than they’re saying publicly, after the one-time ace had a third straight so-so spring training outing.

Once again his fastball was mostly in the 92-93 mph range, and while Harvey emphasized how good he felt about his mechanics afterward, the lack of the old velocity is becoming too much of an issue to ignore.

As such, pitching coach Dan Warthen said afterward that this was to be expected, that it takes 10 months or so for a pitcher to fully regain his fastball after TOS surgery.

Essentially Warthen was saying that everybody needs to be patient with Harvey, but it was only a month ago, during the first week of Mets’ camp, that the pitching coach was forecasting a smooth return.

“I think that he wants to be the No. 1 pitcher in baseball,’’ Warthen said then. “I’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t have a great year.’’

So you get the feeling the Mets, privately at least, had to be expecting more from Harvey to this point, and now are scratching their heads, hoping that it really is a matter of needing more time to recover from the surgery last July in which a rib was removed to improve blood flow and nerve sensation in his pitching arm. It’s not that you can say for sure Harvey won’t be able to pitch effectively without a big fastball. He has always had a four-pitch arsenal and pitched his best when he had some mix of slider, curveball and changeup working to complement the high heat.

But it sure won’t be easy.

Last week Don Mattingly was telling me how Josh Beckett came back from TOS surgery to pitch well for the Dodgers a few years ago. But Mattingly made the point that Beckett had already transitioned from power pitcher to more of a wily veteran who relied on command and changing speeds.

“He was older, he knew what he was doing and exactly how he wanted to pitch,’’ Mattingly said of Beckett. “That’s a little bit different than a Harvey, who’s a power guy. He has good secondary pitches but they work off his power. The slider’s not as effective when you don’t have to cheat to get to 98 (mph).

“So that could be a big adjustment for him if the velocity doesn’t come all the way back.”

That seems to be where Harvey is at the moment, and it has to scare him at least a little. A scout at Wednesday’s game against the Marlins said “his fastball lacked life,” and, in fact, Harvey relied heavily on his curveball and changeup to limit the damage to five hits and four runs over 3.1 innings.

“The curveball was his best pitch,’’ the scout said.

And even though two of the Marlins’ four runs against him were unearned, Harvey still has an unsightly 7.88 ERA for his three starts.

He said he’s not concerned with results, which is what pitchers always say in spring training when the results aren’t good. In his case, after losing the feel in his pitching hand last season and struggling to command his pitches, it’s surely more complicated for Harvey than for others.

So when he says it’s more important that he feels good about the progress he’s making, well, ok, you have to give him some benefit of the doubt.

But as was the case with Warthen, Harvey too sounded a lot more optimistic before games started, talking about how it was nice to again be able to throw the ball where he wanted to, something he said had “always come easy’’ before the TOS.

And it doesn’t sound like he’s at ease with everything when Warthen said that Harvey is trying to force the velocity issue.

“I think he’s trying to muster up a little more velocity and he’s just not ready yet,’’ Warthen said.

Yet the pitching coach said he’s not concerned because he knows Harvey “can pitch with what he has right now.”

Maybe he can, but even Harvey wouldn’t dispute that his once-intimidating aura, which he flaunted as an ace should, was built around his eye-popping fastball. It’s hard to believe he can be anywhere near his old self without it.