Matt Harvey is expected to return to the Mets team in 2015. (Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports)
NEW YORK — For the first time in 386 days, Matt Harvey stepped on to the pitcher’s mound on the diamond at Citi Field on Monday afternoon, when he threw a simulated game several hours before the Mets fell to the Miami Marlins, 6-5.
If everything goes according to plan for Harvey and the Mets, he’ll be pitching against the Marlins the next time he climbs the Citi Field mound.
The Mets couldn’t help but daydream about Harvey’s return after he hit 95 mph on the radar gun and threw all his pitches except his slider during a mound session attended by manager Terry Collins, pitching coach Dan Warthen and general manager Sandy Alderson.
“You look forward saying, boy, that’s a nice piece that we can look forward to come February,” Collins said. “That’s a really, really nice piece. We tried to keep him at 80 percent and it was still very, very good.”
The simulated game was the first for Harvey since undergoing Tommy John surgery last Oct. 22, and it’ll be his last extensive work until reporting to spring training.
Harvey didn’t speak following Monday’s mound session, but he told WFAN radio in New York last Thursday that he expects to start on the road against the Washington Nationals on Opening Day 2015, which falls on April 6. Assuming Harvey does in fact get the nod in the season opener, he would be in line to make his first start at Citi Field on April 17 — a mere 217 days from Monday.
“There’s only a couple teams, the Marlins being one themselves, that are saying ‘Wow, we’ve got a No. 1 coming,'” Collins said, referring to Marlins right-hander Jose Fernandez, who is also recovering from Tommy John surgery. “People go out and work very, very hard in the wintertime to find a starting pitcher. We’ve got one that is coming back and being 100 percent. You’ve got to look ahead.”
