Another blow for the New York Mets as their young star Matt Harvey will undergo Tommy John surgery and likely will miss the 2014 season. Read more after the jump.
Harvey was diagnosed with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. He initially considered going through rehabilitation but after speaking with doctors and the team he opted to undergo the surgery.
Because the tear was partial, Harvey and the Mets had hoped he would be able to allow the ligament to heal and strengthen via rest and rehabilitation, a course that was prescribed by Dr. James Andrews two weeks ago. Further consultation with Andrews, however, resulted in the decision to do the surgery, after all. Andrews will perform the operation himself later this month.
There’s some small chance Harvey’s recovery from surgery could go particularly well, giving him the opportunity to make a start or two at the very end of the 2014 season. More likely, he won’t take a major league mound again until 2015, but by the time pitchers and catchers report that February, he will have had roughly 16 months to rehab from a surgery from which pitchers typically return in about 12 months. The hope, then, is that the Matt Harvey we see in 2015, though he will be 26, will be close to full strength and able to pick up where the 2013 model left off.
