Injuries killed former New York Mets ace Matt Harvey’s MLB career. Now he has his attention turned on a potential Korean baseball career.
Korean media network SBS is reporting that former New York Mets star Matt Harvey has made it known that he’s interested in joining a KBO team.
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
There aren’t many roster spots open in the middle of the season, so it seems unlikely Harvey will join a team anytime soon. However, Harvey’s interest in moving abroad is a significant development.
Harvey had been working out all offseason and even threw bullpens for interested teams. The most notable was a bullpen session he threw for the Toronto Blue Jays in December. Despite his persistence, Harvey hasn’t been able to land a contract.
Harvey spent the majority of the 2019 season in Triple-A with the Oakland Athletics and even moved to the bullpen at one point. He struggled mightily and teams seem to have given up on the former All-Star.
Injuries have wreaked havoc on Harvey’s career. Tommy John surgery robbed him of a season, but he bounced back stronger than ever. His 2015 season was a testament to his ability to rebound as he helped the Mets reach the World Series blowing past his innings limit.
He wasn’t as lucky after coming back from Thoracic Outlet surgery. The surgery has ended a number of careers before Harvey’s and seems to be one of the worst injuries a pitcher can sustain.
After coming back from the surgery, Harvey wasn’t the same pitcher. His ERA ballooned up over 4.80 when he returned 2016 and it never came back down.
Now 31-years-old Harvey is looking for a way to continue his baseball career. A number of pitchers have gone to Korea and looked to rehab their value. Just this year two players who were on the Mets 2019 roster have found success pitching in Korea. Chris Flexen is 2-0 with a 2.61 ERA in five starts. Drew Gagnon is the KBO strikeout leader and has a 3.95 ERA.
Harvey is looking to join the list of American pitchers to take advantage of baseball in Korea. All in hopes of finding his way back to MLB one day.
