PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. _ The missing rib, removed from the upper part of his right chest, was easily forgotten about by Matt Harvey.
Not feeling his right hand, the one he uses to grip a baseball, well, that was alarming. As Harvey spoke Monday about the past eight months since the surgery to correct his thoracic outlet syndrome, the missing hand still haunted him.
"That was a big scare for me when I was in the hospital," Harvey said.
For three days, Harvey waited for the sensation to return to his pitching hand, as the nerve block administered for the operation apparently lingered. After everything Harvey has been through, the 2013 Tommy John surgery followed by this, it's understandable that he would be spooked. The lows were starting to outnumber the highs.
But Harvey, already on his Third Act at age 27, finally had the chance to exhale.
"I slowly got it back," Harvey said. "And once I had full movement, and started with the physical therapy, it was smooth sailing from there."
Smooth is good. Smooth works. Harvey and the Mets could use a lot more smooth over the next six weeks, and _ dare we say it? _ into the regular season. Is that too much to ask? Because to this point, even during the best of times, everything between Harvey and the Mets has been the opposite of smooth.
The tug-of-war over innings limits, the World Series Game 5 melodrama, Harvey pitching like a shell of his former self in 2016 before the TOS diagnosis. Along with Sandy Alderson and Scott Boras repeatedly butting heads, providing the soundtrack for a career suddenly going sideways. What if everyone involved could just start on the same page this year, follow the same script and pursue the same goal: to transform Harvey into a Cy Young-caliber pitcher again.
Why the heck not? And judging by Monday's meet-and-greet with the media, Harvey sounds game. There's nothing like a glimpse of a player's own mortality to get them to rethink their business plan, and Harvey has now stared into that abyss twice. Deep down, we're not convinced Harvey is prepared to be just another member of the Mets' rotation, as good as it is. That's not how he's wired. But he seems patient enough to regroup, with designs on reclaiming the No. 1 title he once held. It's only natural for him.
"I think the ace talk, I think that's a long way away," Harvey said. "I think you guys can call it what you want to, but we're all here to win as many games as we can. There's so much talent from one to five, no matter who we throw out there."
But if Harvey is somehow able to again find his 2013 form, the one who started the All-Star Game at Citi Field, the one who finished fourth in the Cy Young voting, despite the season-ending TJ surgery, that's a game-changer. That could get Harvey back on the mound for another World Series, with a different result. Terry Collins knows that's still inside him. It's just a matter of protecting it _ and preserving it _ moving forward.
"We just have to wait and see how he's going to feel," Terry Collins said. "We aren't sure how many guys have really bounced back from the injury he had to be what they were the year before. But I know one thing about Matt Harvey. If anybody can do that, Matt Harvey will be one of those guys that can regain the dominance that he once was."
Collins also said that Harvey has been "humbled" by last year's setback, and we got that sense listening to him Monday at the podium. But it was a different experience altogether watching him throw during his first bullpen session. This was not someone tentatively feeling their way back. On the mound, Harvey stood tall with the same confidence, fired his pitches with the same powerful intent. Whatever the surgery stripped from him, taking that rib as a toll, the rest of Harvey certainly appears intact.
"Throwing a baseball has always been easy for me and last year it just wasn't," Harvey said. "So I'm just glad to be healthy."
With Harvey, easy would be a good place to start.
