San Diego Padres Should Explore a Trade for Matt Harvey

The San Diego Padres need to bridge the gap to their upper-crust level of pitching prospects coming down the turnpike. The Mets are in town this weekend and they have a potentially good, albeit very unhappy pitcher.

The San Diego Padres were heading into this season hoping that the combination of Luis Perdomo, Bryan Mitchell, and Tyson Ross, along with Clayton Richard and Dinelson Lamet, would hold down the fort this season until some talented rookie reinforcements arrive.

That plan quickly went south as Lamet tore his UCL, the best pitch Perdomo threw all season was his glove at Nolan Arenado, and Bryan Mitchell has been…underwhelming.

Tyson Ross has been a pleasant surprise, and Joey Lucchesi has been nothing short of a revelation. Clayton Richard has performed admirably and somewhat consistently. His numbers don’t really do him justice so far this season. He’s been good more often than he’s been bad.

The Friars’ deep pile of pitching prospects will not be ready to offer any assistance this season. Eric Lauer made his debut last week and figures to stick around for a while, but if this team wants to be competitive this season, another arm would help.

Here’s a wild idea…

The San Diego Padres welcome the first-place and pitching-heavy New York Mets into town this weekend. They had one or two too many arms in their rotation, to begin with, this season.

Now that Matt Harvey has been unceremoniously moved into the bullpen, and especially after his well-publicized run-in with the Mets’ media corps this week, it’s become clear that his time in New York may be coming to an end very soon.

Harvey, 29, famously took the National League by storm from 2012-2013, missed 2014 due to a torn UCL that required surgery, and then came back to help lead the Mets to a league-pennant in 2015.

Since then, he’s battled back from multiple issues, including thoracic outlet surgery, same as Tyson Ross.

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The rise and fall of the Dark Knight

From 2012-2015, Harvey pitched to a 2.53 earned-run average with 449 strikeouts and just 94 walks.

His 1.000 WHIP and 4.78 strikeout-to-walk ratio signify just how dominant of a pitcher he was before injuries took his career off-track.

Since returning in 2016, and missing sporadic time since, Harvey has a 5.79 ERA in 208.1 innings, but has still shown to be a control pitcher to an extent, striking out 162 and walking 77 over that time.

While he hasn’t been deemed truly “healthy” until heading into this season, his 5.87 ERA, 19 strikeouts and five walks over 23 innings prove that something is most definitely still amiss.

At this point, after all of his ups and downs (and sideways), maybe all Matt Harvey really needs is a change of scenery and the chance to start again without having to worry about losing his rotation spot after one or two bad outings. And to get out of New York.

Next: Pitching Matchups vs. Mets

Alleviate the pressure and the real Matt Harvey could re-emerge. It won’t cost much to acquire him, as he’s at his lowest value and will be a free-agent after the season. It could be a win-win situation for all parties involved.