The Dark Knight Returns? Matt Harvey Flirts with KBO and NPB

Much like his superhero namesake, The Dark Knight (aka. Batman), we’ve seen multiple versions of former Major League pitcher Matt Harvey over the years. For those only familiar with the recent sad “Batffleck” stage of Harvey’s run, he was once among the best pitchers in the National League, a Christian Bale or Michael Keaton to his current Ben Affleck, if I can continue the clunky analogy. Today, Harvey is out of the MLB, making overtures to some of the leading teams in Korea and Japan in an attempt to make it back.

Matt Harvey was drafted by the New York Mets in the 2010 MLB Draft and cracked the Mets rotation just two years later. Harvey would post a dominant 2013 season the following year, starting the All-Star Game for the National League and going 9-5 in 26 starts with a 2.27 earned run average, a 0.931 WHIP and striking out 191 in 178 innings. Unfortunately, Harvey would succumb to an elbow injury at the end of 2013, requiring Tommy John Surgery and wiping out his entire 2014.

In 2015, Harvey returned and looked solid, if not completely dominant. Call this the Val Kilmer Batman year of his career. Harvey went 13-8 for the Mets, posting a quality 2.71 ERA with a FIP not much higher, a 1.019 WHIP and 188 strikeouts in 189 innings, while helping drag the Mets to the World Series. To date, this was the last appearance of “The Dark Knight”; the guy who has been pitching under the name Matt Harvey since 2015 has been far less than heroic.

Dealing with a litany of injuries and issues, Harvey scuffled through another two seasons with the Mets, before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds in mid-2018. Harvey’s numbers for the Reds were serviceable, posting a 4.50 ERA with a 4.33 FIP in 24 starts with 111 strikeouts in 128 innings. That line earned Harvey a shot with the Angels in 2019, but he flushed it completely, posting an ERA over seven in 12 starts before getting cut.

Today, a fully healthy Matt Harvey isn’t even getting nibbles from MLB teams. The league has moved on, but the pitcher has not, recently telling the New York Post “I have thought about [retirement] here and there. I haven’t not had a job in 10 years. It’s definitely different, but it’s exciting at the same time because I feel so good mechanically. I hope somebody gives me a shot. I feel like I have many more years in me.”

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Harvey has been trying to catch the eye of professional teams by posting videos of him pitching in training situations to social media.

Last week, Harvey’s agent Scott Boras, confirmed to tabloids that the agency had reached out to teams in the Korean Baseball Organization regarding the pitcher’s services, as had initially been reported by SBS.

SBS reported last night that Matt Harvey’s reps reached out to #KBO teams. There is not a clear opening for a pitcher at the moment, but his name is out there for now. Fyi, Boras Corp has a fulltime employee here in Korea. pic.twitter.com/nO06A6QmlW

— Daniel Kim 대니얼 김 (@DanielKimW) June 5, 2020

KBO teams are limited to three imported players per organization, which might trim the number of quality opportunities. Boras’ agency represents several players in the KBO, including Dinos’ star Sung-bum Na, but most of the leading teams are at import capacity. Nothing about Matt Harvey’s personality suggests he would be happy joining a cellar-dwelling team like the Hanwha Eagles, so either a KBO team is considering a major move to make room for him or this is a lot of smoke from Harvey’s camp.

Additional rumors have emerged that Harvey’s representatives have also reached out to teams in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, as first reported by Jon Heyman.

Teams in both Korea and Japan are looking at Matt Harvey

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 9, 2020

Harvey would likely find a higher quality landing spot in the NPB, and the path from the Japanese league back to MLB is typically shorter, as the talent is more highly regarded. The emerging popularity of the KBO, and the regular ESPN spots that come with it, could be tempting for someone who likes the spotlight like Matt Harvey. Stay tuned, if Harvey’s history is anything to go by this will take two or three more turns before he lands somewhere.

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