Collins: Harvey needs us, and we’re here
ON THE DAY Matt Harvey returned from his three-day suspension for a violation of team rules, Terry Collins danced around questions about Harvey’s lifestyle away from Citi Field and whether the former ace has a problem with alcohol.
But one thing that came across clearly: The Mets manager knows his former ace needs help.
During his pregame news conference Tuesday, Collins admitted Harvey has a lot of work ahead of him and acknowledged there are people in place to guide the righthander off the field to avoid another embarrassing situation such as this weekend’s.
“Matt’s got a pretty good support group,” Collins said. “There’s a lot of people out there that are willing to help and I think he’s going to use them. I don’t think he thinks he has to do it by himself anymore. I think he knows he’s got people in his corner no matter what their title is that are going to help him try to go down the right path and do the right things.
“Nobody likes to be embarrassed here, and that’s kind of where he’s at right now more than anything. And so we’re going to fix that. We’re going to help fix that.”
Collins was asked frankly if Harvey has a problem with alcohol.
“You guys are asking me stuff that I can’t answer,” Collins said. “I’m not qualified to answer that. I’m not even qualified to tell you how the spin rate is on his slider.”
Harvey confessed Tuesday he was out past curfew Friday night, Cinco de Mayo, and played golf the next morning. The late night factored into his decision to skip Saturday’s game against the Marlins in Flushing, an absence that prompted the suspension.
“I told him he needs to make baseball No. 1. When he did that, he was on top of the world,” Collins said. “Offthe-field stuff, you got to be able to have blinders. You got to be able to put the blinders on and direct yourself down that path and say, ‘I’m not going let any of this stuff get in the way right now.’ You got six months (you) can do that other stuff.”
That response prompted a direct question: “Is the club of the opinion that Matt has an off-thefield issue, a larger problem that needs to be addressed?”
“I didn’t get into that stuff with him,” Collins said. “I know that there’s people who have that he’s discussed it with, the professionals on that side of it. I just told him, for me, it’s like I said, I think he needs to just re-focus his energies toward being the best in the game again. Now along the way, obviously it’s going to be tough at times because he’s going to have some downs. But that’s where the support people have to step up and be there for him.”
I don’t think he thinks he has to do it by himself anymore. TERRY COLLINS ON MATT HARVEY