Callaway: Harvey an ‘option’ for rotation
One man’s hyperextended elbow may be another man’s return to the rotation. While absolutely nothing is certain, Mets manager Mickey Callaway brought up Matt Harvey, who has been demoted to the bullpen, as a possible option to take Jacob deGrom’s spot in the rotation should the injury deGrom suffered Wednesday force an extended absence. “Yeah, it’s gone through my head. We have options. We have plenty of options so we’ll just have to see the results are to- morrow and go from there,” Callaway said when asked if he had contemplated a replacement yet. “I think [Corey] Oswalt threw the ball pretty good when he was up here. Harvey’s ready to go to start if we need him so we’ll just see what happens.”
Harvey of course has been in the news lately — not as much as say President Trump — but still getting attention. He was demoted to the bullpen and then was at the center of a fuss after The Post’s Page Six reported he attended a party in Los Angeles the night before he was called on to pitch in San Diego last week.
Not to read into anything, but Callaway did mention Oswalt first. But he stressed how Harvey is a viable option.
“He popped into my head right away,” Callaway said. “We do need to have that discussion. Is it better off for our team, better off for Matt Harvey to stay down there [in the bullpen] longer? So we’ll just have to talk through that.”
Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo are two other converted started currently in the bullpen.