Former Mets and current Reds RHP Matt Harvey is set to become a free agent at the end of the season. And after what was scheduled to be his penultimate start of the season, he gave a glimpse of what team he could play for in 2019.
"There's only one team out there I would not sign with," Harvey said, according to The Athletic's C. Trent Rosecrans. "That's about it."
Harvey, whom the Mets traded to Cincinnati in May, did not specifically say which team he was alluding to.
When he returned to Citi Field in August, he admitted he had regrets about how his tenure with the Mets ended.
"I do want everybody to know that I do regret mistakes I made," Harvey said last month. "But I did put my heart in to this organization."
To say Harvey's Mets stint began a success would be an understatement. He went 12-10 with a 2.39 ERA in 36 starts over his first two seasons, starting the All-Star Game at home in 2013 at 24 years old. But later that season, he suffered an elbow injury that required him to undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the 2014 season.
He returned in 2015 and went 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA with 188 strikeouts in 189 1/3 innings, leading the Mets to their first World Series berth since 2000. He went 2-0 with a 3.04 ERA in four postseason starts, his last one ending by leaving the eventual game-tying runs on base in the ninth inning in a 2-0 game.
His last three seasons, however, he was a shell of his former self, in part due to injuries. He went 4-10 with a 4.86 ERA in 2016, his season cut short due to thoracic outlet syndrome. Last season, he went 5-7 with a 6.70 ERA, suffering a shoulder injury that kept him out most of the year.
And in 2018, he went 0-2 with a 7.00 ERA in eight games (four starts) before the Mets traded him to the Reds, with whom he has gone 7-7 with a 4.50 ERA in 24 starts.
Harvey's name was brought up amid several teams at the trade deadline, however the Reds ultimately kept him. Given the 29-year-old Harvey will be a free agent in the offseason, he will have his choice for whom he wants to play.
And in his words, there's only one team he is ruling out.
