North Carolina Tar Heels: Matt Harvey to have Season-Ending Surgery
North Carolina Tar Heels alum Matt Harvey‘s season is done before the All Star Break due to surgery.
Is it too early to be concerned about former North Carolina Tar Heels pitcher Matt Harvey? Or am I late to the party on this one? Harvey will undergo season ending surgery according to reports from Adam Rubin of ESPN.
Harvey is suffering from pain in his throwing shoulder. Follow up work came up with the diagnosis of thoracic outlet syndrome. This condition is where there is pressure on blood vessels and/or nerves in the area between the ribs and the collarbone. This results in pain in the neck and shoulder. Harvey’s agent Scott Boras claims his client has been affected all year.
That could explain why Harvey has not been his usual self this season. He currently has a 4-10 record and an ERA that isn’t that far away from 5. For an All Star level starter, those numbers are terrible and have likely been driving Mets fans crazy all year.
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This is not the first time the Mets have lost Harvey for a significant amount of time. He had Tommy John surgery two years ago. He was supposed to be limited in action last year, but a Mets playoff run pulled him into more action.
The timing of this compared to the Tommy John surgery is interesting. Could the previous surgery have had something to do with the current condition. Both have something to with the shoulder area. However the thoracic condition just seems to bother the shoulder and not originate there.
At this point Tommy John procedures are too startlingly common in baseball. The one such operation that I have the most experience with is when Jake Delhomme got one. That did not salvage his career.
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I hope that Harvey really is experiencing physical problems and that this is not an indicator that his career is about to flameout. He should still have some years left to pitch.