Sunday, May 12

Matt Harvey, the Mets’ ‘Dark Knight,’ retires at 34

NEW YORK — Matt Harvey introduced Friday he’s retiring from baseball after a nine-year pitching profession highlighted by his time because the Mets’ “Dark Knight.”

Harvey, whose star pale amid accidents and a late-career suspension for drug distribution, thanked followers for making “a dream come true” in his Instagram submit asserting his retirement.

Nicknamed the “Dark Knight of Gotham,” Harvey was chosen seventh general by the Mets within the 2010 beginner draft and made a heralded main league debut in 2012. He began the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field, however slightly greater than a month later tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow and wanted Tommy John surgical procedure.

He returned in 2015 and went 13-8, serving to the Mets attain the World Series, the place they misplaced to the Kansas City Royals.

“I pitched to win,” Harvey wrote in his submit. “To fire up my team and more importantly, to fire up the fans in a city that I’ve always loved.”

He was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in May 2018, pitched for the Los Angeles Angels in 2019, the Royals in 2020 and the Baltimore Orioles in 2021. Health woes, together with thoracic outlet syndrome, contributed to Harvey failing to recapture his early profession magic.

Harvey, 34, acknowledged in his submit that “with all the amazing memories came a lot of injuries and tough times.”

Last 12 months, Harvey testified on the trial of a former Los Angeles Angels worker who was later convicted of offering pitcher Tyler Skaggs the medicine that led to his overdose loss of life in July 2019.

Harvey was one in every of 4 gamers who admitted to receiving oxycodone tablets from the ex-employee, Eric Kay, who was sentenced to 22 years in jail in October 2022.

Harvey, who stated at trial he believed his testimony would threaten his profession, additionally informed the courtroom he and teammates had given and supplied medicine to one another.

Major League Baseball suspended Harvey for 60 video games in 2022 for distributing a prohibited drug of abuse, and he by no means made it again to the majors.

He has a 50-66 profession file with a 4.42 ERA in 9 main league seasons. He pitched for Team Italy at this 12 months’s World Baseball Classic, the place he allowed a run and 4 hits in seven innings over two begins.

“There is nothing I love more than getting out of a tough situation in the 7th or 8th inning,” Harvey wrote, “to finally let the emotions out, knowing I did absolutely everything I could to help my team win, and to give a powerful fist bump and a scream!”

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