Gotham Doesn't Deserve Its Dark Knight.

Matt Harvey is a good pitcher. He might be a great pitcher, but at 24, it's too early to determine that properly. What we can say with certainty is that Matt Harvey throws a blazing fastball, with an average velocity of 95 miles per hour that flirts with triple digits from time to time, a slider that most hitters in the league can only dream of weakly fouling back, and a curve and changeup that also serve the boy quite well. He has a K/9 of 9.46 this year, with 102 strikeouts in 97 innings, and a beautiful 2.04 ERA. His FIP and xFIP, somewhat more accurate measures than ERA, are 2.15 and 2.83, meaning he's the real deal. His BABIP is .260, just slightly under the average, meaning luck has very little to do with his very impressive numbers. Matt Harvey, folks, is a good pitcher.

But he will never succeed as long as he plays with the New York Mets. They must trade Harvey if either party is to do better in the future.

And I'm not just saying this as a Yankees and Braves fan. Or as his manager in my fantasy league. I promise this has nothing to do with my biases. 

Consider this: you work at a job where your performance is weighed against the performance of your coworkers. You routinely give your all, earn your money, and make your coworkers look pretty good. In return, they frequently call out, and when they do show up, they're lazy, listless, and completely unconcerned with holding up their end of the deal. You'd probably want to work somewhere else, and your abilities would be more than enough to get you a recommendation from your boss to help you on your way. Unless, of course, you're a pitcher for the Mets, and your boss is Fred Wilpon, notorious cheapskate, or Sandy Alderson, GM du jour, two men who seem to have no cognizance of how to properly handle their ballplayers (read: Ike Davis).

After a 2-1 loss to the Cardinals today (in which Harvey went 7 innings with 7 strikeouts, 1 walk, and 1 run on 5 hits), Harvey factored into a loss for the first time this season, giving him a 5-1 record as we slowly approach the All-Star Break in a month. With his numbers, there is simply no reason why he should have 1 loss, let alone just 5 wins. Here's why: when Harvey pitches, the Mets have gone 8-6. In 14 games pitched, Harvey has only factored into 6 decisions. For some inexplicable reason, the Mets simply don't score while Harvey's pitching. Sure, they score in games he pitches, but it's often after he's left the game. The most sparkling example of this is his start against the White Sox back on May 7th. Matt had a perfect game going through 6.1 innings, until a piddly little single from Alex Rios broke it up. Still, Harvey pitched 9 innings, allowed only the one hit, no runs, no walks, and recorded 12 strikeouts. AND HE DIDN'T GET THE WIN, NOR THE COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUT, BECAUSE THE METS DIDN'T SCORE ANY RUNS EITHER. In case you're wondering, the Mets won in the 10th inning on a walk-off single, which they apparently couldn't manufacture in the first 9 innings. In case you were wondering, closer Bobby Parnell (who has 4 wins himself, thanks to closing out most games Harvey pitches) got the win. In case you were wondering, no other pitcher has ever had such a dominant start without even factoring into the decision. This is just the most extreme example, but many of his starts this season have followed a similar pattern: Harvey deals, throws strikeouts, induces grounders, strands runners on base...and leaves most starts with his team losing or the game tied. Do you see the problem here? When anyone else unlucky enough to don a Mets uniform pitches, the team has gone 16-31, so obviously, Harvey is doing his best to instill a winning mentality in this garbage team. But when they seemingly refuse to give him any run support, what else is he supposed to do?

I can guarantee that Harvey would be a huge draw for any team, and therefore would net the Amazin's quite a haul in return. It makes good sense, since the Mets would be able to say that they're still "rebuilding" or "looking towards the future" or whatever empty phrase they're slinging this week to make up for the fact that, from top to bottom (save David Wright and Harvey), the organization is heading in the wrong direction, and Harvey would get a chance to, you know, win. Somewhere else. He grew up in New Jersey as a Yankees fan, so it's not hard to see him in pinstripes someday. The Royals still have a deep farm system and could be looking for a young stud to complement James Shields. The Rangers could trade any one of their middle infielders that they are currently overstuffed with. The Giants don't have a strong minor league system, but with the state of their rotation, they're chomping at the bit for top-of-the-rotation talent. The Cardinals could take a flyer on the kid and take their rotation from dominant to unstoppable. As far as what the Mets could get back, well, take your pick: the Yanks could offer up either Dellin Betances or Manny Banuelos, the Royals still have Bubba Starling among others, the Rangers could dangle Jurickson Profar or Mike Olt, the Giants could create a package centered around Brandon Crawford and some lower-level prospects, and the Cardinals could potentially part with Kolten Wong. Hell, the Astros could probably just trade Carlos Correa straight up for him, and both teams would come out on top (sorry to throw you under the Mets bus, Carlos).

Although, sending him to Houston would admittedly be the most counterproductive trade ever made.

Now, a minor speedbump in any potential Harvey trade talks (please take note, dear reader, that this is all purely speculative, as Harvey's name has not come up in any trade rumors and likely will not for quite some time) would be the fan backlash. They were already pretty upset when the Mets brass sent reigning Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey north of the border to Toronto, even though they got back a nice package (catcher Travis d'Arnaud and hurler Noah Syndergaard, both of whom are progressing nicely in the minors) and the trade appears to be skewing in New York's favor (a quick glance of Dickey's stats proves that maybe a knuckleballer shouldn't have gone to the AL East so soon after Tim Wakefield retired). But still, the fans were not pleased when the trade was announced, and that was over a 38-year-old hurler who relies entirely on one pitch, coming off a career year that he could never hope to repeat. Imagine how pissed they'd be in Queens if a 24-year-old stud with an amazing repertoire and devastating command was shipped out.

But this has to happen. For Matt Harvey's sake and for the Mets' sake. It's always a shame to see a team so far away from contending, or an organization that can't get its act together, hold on to a star player and force him to languish away with little to no support, especially when there's an easily-taken route that would be extremely beneficial to everyone involved. So, for now, it appears that Harvey will just have to be satisfied with being a true diamond in the rough for his team, and maybe someday, he'll have a chance to shine brighter elsewhere.