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With drastic measures, Mets call attention to drastic times

 
FILE - In a Friday, April 21, 2017 file photo, New York Mets' Matt Harvey (33) delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, in New York. The New York Mets have scratched Harvey for his scheduled start Sunday, May 7, 2017, against the Miami Marlins and suspended the right-hander three days for a violation of team rules.  (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File) NYSP101
FILE - In a Friday, April 21, 2017 file photo, New York Mets' Matt Harvey (33) delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, in New York. The New York Mets have scratched Harvey for his scheduled start Sunday, May 7, 2017, against the Miami Marlins and suspended the right-hander three days for a violation of team rules. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File) NYSP101
Published May 8, 2017

NEW YORK — The event at Citi Field on Sunday was billed as a major-league baseball game. Unofficially, though, it was something closer to consumer fraud. After announcing a sudden suspension for pitcher Matt Harvey on Sunday morning, the New York Mets essentially conceded a game and turned it into batting practice for Giancarlo Stanton.

Such an exhibition is not without its charm. Stanton, the Miami Marlins' hulking rightfielder, has breathtaking power and unleashed it on an overmatched Adam Wilk, who surely dreamed of better circumstances for his Mets debut. Stanton pulverized two breaking balls for home runs, one to the second deck in left, another off the facing of a stadium restaurant.

In response, the Mets managed one hit in a 7-0 loss. The drubbing was not as emphatic as last Sunday's — a 23-5 fiasco in Washington — but it was played under the same cloud of crisis.

Last Sunday's was about pitcher Noah Syndergaard, who learned that he was not indestructible after all, when he tore his right latissimus muscle. It was the first start for Syndergaard after he had defiantly refused an MRI exam on his biceps, and now he is out for months.

On this Sunday the intrigue surrounded Harvey, who was suspended for three days without pay for an unspecified violation of team rules. On his pregame radio show with Wayne Randazzo, manager Terry Collins said this when asked what he hoped Harvey would learn:

"Everybody's different, but we got a job to do here and this guy has a chance to be one of the best in the game. And it's got to become his No. 1 priority right now."

What a stinging indictment of a pitcher Collins trusted in the ninth inning of a World Series elimination game less than two years ago.

Logically, the Mets would not suspend a player unless they absolutely had to, whether to send him a message or set an example for the team. To summon a nonroster pitcher from their distant Triple-A affiliate, and to have him fly overnight from Albuquerque, N.M., to Los Angeles to New York and report directly to the ballpark to start, was a setup for failure.

Someone close to Harvey, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the problem was miscommunication. The person said Harvey played golf Saturday, was bothered by a migraine and did not report to the ballpark or tell the Mets of his absence before 3 p.m. The Mets reached out to Harvey then, the person said, and when Harvey arrived at Citi Field on Sunday, he was told of the suspension and sent home. Mets general manager Sandy Alderson declined to comment.

The union could theoretically file a grievance for Harvey, to try to recoup the lost salary, but he has treaded into this territory before. He missed a mandatory workout on the eve of the 2015 playoffs, later apologizing to teammates and explaining that he had no excuse. There is no evidence of other no-shows this season, but Saturday's apparently was enough to warrant discipline.

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"We're disappointed," infielder Jose Reyes told reporters at Citi Field. "We have to understand we are employees. We have to come to the job every day. We count on him. He's a big piece of the ballclub and where we need to go."

Reyes added, "The team puts up rules from spring training, and everybody knows here what the rules are."

It is reasonable to wonder if this ties to the Syndergaard saga. When Syndergaard missed a start on April 27, the Mets hurriedly asked Harvey to take his place. Harvey did, lost, and explained that he had a heavy weightlifting session the day before that had kept him from pitching at his best. Collins said he did not know about that workout, which underscores a startling lack of communication between the team and a star player.

Syndergaard's refusal to take the MRI exam — something Alderson had never experienced in decades as a top executive — may not, by itself, have led to his injury. The Mets could have, and probably should have, held firm by refusing to let him pitch. But they put him through a bullpen session, trusted his knowledge of his own health, and cleared him.

The team has said less, officially, about the circumstances of Harvey's suspension. But something seems awry, as if two pitchers celebrated as cartoon superheroes — the Dark Knight and Thor, young and single in the big city — may have embraced a culture of entitlement.

At some point, the game always bites back. With Syndergaard, it did so with an injury on the mound in Washington. With Harvey, it did so with the suspension. Both times, the immediate result was a humbling defeat for their teammates.

In a larger sense, the Mets continue to struggle simply to put these prized pitchers on the mound. They have built this era around those arms, and the 2015 National League pennant is a lasting testament to that vision. But young pitching, which is so fraught with uncertainty in the modern game, seems more and more like a soft foundation.

The reigning champions, the Chicago Cubs, deliberately went the opposite way, investing in starters with more dependable track records and in young position players. That seems to be working.

The Mets' way is not, and with every new melodrama, the feeling grows stronger that this group may have already peaked.