Matt Harvey saw Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla. on Monday for a second opinion on the partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. The examination was to help decide whether Harvey will need Tommy John surgery, which is expected.
Harvey returned to New York and the team expects to have further information Tuesday. The 24-year-old has steadfastly said he hopes to avoid undergoing surgery, but said at a 9/11 function last week in Manhattan he would wait for some time after the consultation to make his decision.
“Everything feels fine, my arm feels great and I’m still very optimistic about everything,’’ Harvey said. “But I’m not a doctor, so we’ll see what happens. The way my body feels, the way my arm feels, I put a ball down for two days and I felt fine, so it’s kind of one of those things where I’m optimistic towards [not] having surgery on something that isn’t bothering me anymore. I’m going to get as many opinions as I can, and which way I decide to go, I’m going to go 150 percent.”
The Mets haven’t publicly acknowledged Harvey will have the surgery, but several people within the team think he is close to deciding one way or the other. Considering his importance to the club, it’s easy to see why they are hopeful he decides fairly quickly, possibly within the month but certainly well before spring training.
If he opts for surgery, he will likely miss all of next season and put the Mets in need of adding another reliable starter to the rotation. Many within the organization expect that to be the case, and would prefer that to living in start-by-start fear throughout 2014 should he decline the surgery.
“I know Matt and the organization don’t want to lose two years,” Mets COO Jeff Wilpon said last week. “If it has to be a year and that’s what it ends up being, we’re prepared for that and we’ll deal with it, but I don’t think anybody wants it to be longer than that.”
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Hamstrung Mets star David Wright will have a meeting with team brass — as well as doctors, trainers and physical therapists — Tuesday to assess his progress and determine a course of action going forward. Wright has consistently and steadfastly insisted he will return from the disabled list before the end of this season, and has said he would like to return by the end of this week. The Mets open a series against the Giants Tuesday.
“[The Giants series] could be in play depending on how he comes out of [the weekend] and where we [stand] on Tuesday,’’ manager Terry Collins said over the weekend. “Tuesday we’re going to have a meeting and decide where we’re at, what we need to do.
David’s input and all the doctors and trainers and PTs and witch doctors and everybody involved, they’re all going to be there.’’
Wright has been on the DL since early August with a strained right hamstring, but Collins didn’t seem worried about further injury.
“If something happens, it’s part of the game,” he said. “Should we shut down Zack Wheeler right now? Should we possibly run him out there one more time? I don’t know. How about the catcher, who has been hit in the head seven times in the last four games he’s caught? Should we get him out of there in case he gets hit?”
Wright said “I do feel like there are some things I have to accomplish before I play. … I think (Tuesday’s) optimistic, but I like to be optimistic so I hope that happens.’’
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Zack Wheeler (7-5, 3.22 ERA) faces ex-Met farmhand Yusmeiro Petit (3-0, 2.53) Tuesday in the opener of the San Francisco series. It will be the second time the rookie faces the team that drafted and traded him, having earned the win in the Mets’ 7-2 victory over the Giants on July 10 at AT&T Park.