Going gently into good Knight

Sandy Alderson was talking the other day, and not in a mean way, about how “fragile” Matt Harvey had become these days, not just because of the way Harvey had pitched this season, but because of everything that had happened to him over the past few years.

That includes, by the way, some of the things that Harvey made happen to himself and his own brand, both on and off the field.

And Alderson spoke of how Harvey was a “cautionary tale” for all young pitchers, because of everything that had happened to him since he was first called the Dark Knight of Gotham, and looked like the kind of young pitcher you wouldn’t have traded for any young pitcher around.

There were two major surgeries, one a Tommy John surgery, the other for something called thoracic outlet syndrome. Elbow first. Then shoulder. But even three years ago, when he convinced Terry Collins to send him back out for the 9th inning of Game 5 of the World Series, on the night when he had pretty much pitched the game of his life, he looked like he still had the chance to be one of the brightest pitching stars they have had since Dwight Gooden was a kid.

Gooden had one kind of stunning fall.

Now Harvey has had another kind of fall.

Do you write Harvey off before he gets to the age of 30? You don’t.

Maybe he can write himself a good comeback story, find mechanics that work for him better than the one we’ve seen from him this season, and even though he couldn’t find them with Mickey Callaway and Dave Eiland, the Mets pitching coach.

Maybe he can somehow prove that he was right in thinking he was too good to go to the minor leagues, even briefly, to find himself.

For now, though, Harvey acts like somebody living in the past. The all-too-recent past. Even this season, when he started with five one-hit innings against the Phillies, he had a way of tricking you into believing he could still be something close to the pitcher he once was.

But by last Sunday he was pitching a mop-up 9th inning in a 14-2 game against the San Diego Padres.

Now he has been designated for assignment. DFA’d. A day like that had arrived for somebody once known as the Dark Knight.

He was the DFA Knight.