Harvey has one more scheduled start before the playoffs begin for the Mets on Oct. 9, and he wants to make 100 pitches in that outing, he says, in order to be ready for the playoffs.
Via John Harper's column in the New York Daily News:
If the Mets are going to make a deep run in October they'll surely need to count on Harvey being able to pitch, and while Collins made a point of saying the innings limits will still be in play, he believes Harvey, for whatever reason, has a different view of the situation.
“When he came to me last week he said, ‘I want to pitch. I want to stay out there. I want to throw 100 pitches and I want to do it twice (before the end of the season). “He said, ‘We're going to win this thing and I'm going to pitch in the playoffs, and I've got to be ready. And I'm not ready.' ”
Pitching coach Dan Warthen said Harvey delivered an even more forceful message to him.
“He said he wants to go 100 pitches every fifth day the rest of the way," Warthen said.
Take that, innings limit!
Don't tell Harvey (it's OK, Boras will remind him), but there is a downside to this plan. If he goes another 100 pitches as planned in his next start, that probably puts Harvey at 190 innings or so. If the Mets make it to the World Series and each round of the playoffs goes deep, Harvey could start as many as six postseason games. At 100 pitches per outing, and let's say six innings per outing, that's 225 or so innings for Harvey. Way above the agent-prescribed 185. If that's the way Harvey wants it.
If not, as CBS MLB Insider Jon Heyman reports, Bartolo Colon is standing by to take Harvey's spot in the rotation if the Mets advance beyond the first round and Harvey doesn't pitch anymore.