Harvey rivalry barely began

THE longest one-on-one interview I did with Fernandez came in March 2015, and the subject saddens me now.

In that spring training, Fernandez was working his way back from Tommy John surgery; in fact, I had to wait for him to finish what I had heard was his maniacal workout so we could chat.

But he was excited about the subject. You see, that day Matt Harvey was making his second spring start in his trek back from Tommy John surgery, and Fernandez already had talked to Harvey about the journey. Fernandez had the procedure done after Harvey and still was a few months from a major league return. But he would watch Harvey’s outing beside then-Marlins manager Mike Redmond, glued to every pitch to gain insight into his near future.

My hope was that after the sport was robbed of any matchups between the righty aces in 2014 — Harvey missed the whole year, Fernandez all but eight starts — we would start to see them face each other two to three times a year, like a modern intra-division ace rivalry similar to Bob Gibson and Tom Seaver, who met 11 times. Talking from his vineyard in California, Seaver mentioned how much he cherished those battles.

“For us, obviously, it would be big,” Harvey said of being healthy enough to face each other again. “But it would also be good for MLB.”

Yes, it would have been. But after two meetings in 2013, they were destined to meet just one more time post-surgeries. That was this past June 5 in Miami. Harvey allowed one run in seven innings. Fernandez, though, pitched one of the best games of his career: seven shutout innings with 14 strikeouts.

A month later, Harvey’s season was over when he needed surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome.

Now, Fernandez — who spoke so animatedly that day about a future against not just Harvey, but all of the Mets’ high-end starters — is gone.