ENDING DARK DAYS FOR KNIGHT
Callaway says he can fix Harvey
WCallawayhen he is asked about Matt Harvey, Mickey compares him to Ubaldo Jimenez. The Mets’ new manager means that optimistically, since he succeeded in resurrecting the righthander’s career during their two and half years together in Cleveland, yet I can’t help thinking: Ubaldo Jimenez? Put it this way: I don’t see the comparison making Mets’ fans feel great about the prospects of Harvey ever getting back to pitching with his old dominance.
At age 33, Jimenez is practically the definition of a journeyman, unable to sustain the success he had early in his career, which included a third-place finish in the 2010 NL Cy Young Award voting with the Rockies.
Nevertheless, his best season by far since then was in 2013 with the Indians under Callaway’s tutelage, when he went 13-9 with a 3.30 ERA, though it should be noted it came after posting ERAs above 5.00 in his previous season and a half in Cleveland.
From there, Jimenez parlayed his 2013 success into a four-year, $50 million free-agent deal with the Orioles, but he was mostly a bust in Baltimore, pitching to a 5.22 ERA.
Meanwhile, Harvey’s issues are more injury-related, specifically the surgery in July of 2016 for thoracic outlet syndrome, which is apparently the reason for his rather stunning loss of command.
Remember, Harvey came back from Tommy John surgery and pitched to a 2.71 ERA in 2015. Since the TOS surgery, however, his location has been a major problem, so even though his velocity returned to the 95-mph range last season, the one-time ace was repeatedly hammered to the tune of a 6.70 ERA.
Harvey was so defeated mentally by his struggles that he admitted to being relieved when the season finally ended, but now the Mets are hoping the offseason will bring a fresh start, especially with a change in tutelage — Callaway as manager and Dave Eiland as pitching coach.
Callaway made a similar case with the Jimenez comparison.
“Matt is obviously a guy that’s had great success, and needs a little bit of direction right now,” the new manager told me last week. “And I’ve been around a guy like that, Ubaldo Jimenez.
“It seems like a very similar case. You just get confused in what’s going on and you’re not sure how to right the ship. And it can be a very simple process.”