Adam Rubin, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Burning Questions: How to handle Harvey?

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Matt Harvey will have his innings restricted in 2015, but how remains an open question.

NEW YORK -- The only time Matt Harvey matched up with Stephen Strasburg in their careers, Harvey took a scoreless effort into the seventh inning on April 19, 2013, and fans chanted in unison at Citi Field, Harvey’s better! Harvey’s better!

Two years later, will there be a sequel on Opening Day at Nationals Park, when the Mets face the Washington Nationals?

How the Mets will treat Harvey in 2015 remains somewhat of an open question after the ace missed an entire season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

The last thing fans -- and you would think the Mets -- would want to see is Harvey shut down on the brink of the postseason because of an innings cap.

Harvey logged 178 1/3 regular-season innings in 2013 and none in 2014. So it’s pretty clear the Mets are not going to let their ace, at age 26 next season, toss 200 innings.

That means the Mets, assuming Harvey rivals the success he had before Tommy John surgery, will have to shave his innings at some point.

Does that mean starting the season a few weeks late, which could be particularly doable if the Mets do not trade Jonathon Niese, Dillon Gee or Bartolo Colon this offseason?

Does that mean strategically skipping starts during the season when team off-days allow, as well as an extended All-Star break? (Think when the Mets put Jacob deGrom on the DL and he missed two turns, rejuvenating him for the home stretch.)

Does that mean pulling Harvey early from starts in which he is thriving to conserve innings?

Or does that mean a shutdown, which Washington did with Strasburg in 2012, forcing him to miss the Nats’ postseason?

Strasburg, a client of Scott Boras like Harvey, had Tommy John surgery on Sept. 3, 2010. He was allowed to make five regular-season starts in 2011, then was capped at 159 1/3 regular-season innings and prevented from pitching in the playoffs in 2012.

Strasburg logged 123 1/3 innings between the majors and minors the year he underwent surgery -- 55 fewer innings than Harvey. But he did pitch in the five September games the year after his surgery, unlike Harvey.

Sandy Alderson did not precisely answer whether Harvey pitching in the postseason is a priority for the Mets, although you would think a late-season shutdown would be the least desirable for the organization, which aspires to play in October.

“We are still in the process of formulating a plan for Matt for 2015,” Alderson told ESPNNewYork.com on Thursday. “Some of the issues you mention -- limiting innings, delaying or skipping starts, ensuring Matt is available for the postseason -- are ones we are still discussing.  Once we have a plan, we would, of course, discuss it with Matt before moving forward. In the meantime, we expect that Matt will be ready for spring training and will prepare for the season in Port St. Lucie on a more or less normal basis.”

Should the Mets let Matt Harvey have an unlimited innings count in 2015? Or, what should they do to limit his innings?

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