Matt Harvey to delay rehab, won't take mound next week: Report

The good news Mets fans have been waiting a long time for might be put on hold a little longer.

Matt Harvey will not take a mound next week as hopefully expected. The organization reportedly wants the recovering Mets pitcher to slow down his rehab and take the cautious road back.

The injured righthander will not throw off a mound Tuesday as originally planned, two team sources told the New York Daily News. 

“He’s fine,” a team source said. “It’s nothing physical, it’s just a plan to be more cautious.”

The Mets are reluctant to have their ultra-competitive pitcher come back too soon and are concerned about the recent rash of pitchers who have required a second Tommy John surgery.

“He will just go a little slower,” pitching coach Dan Warthen said.

Harvey was scheduled to get back on the mound next week as he attempts to return from the October surgical procedure. But the Mets wanted to slow down the process, to prevent a setback.

The move was made out of caution, according to the source, not because there was anything wrong with Harvey.

Harvey has been persistent about wanting to pitch in a major-league game by the end of this season. The Mets, who have said that is not their priority, are focused on getting him back for Opening Day 2015.

With the goal of pitching as soon as August and getting five to seven major-league starts in 2014, Harvey calculated that he needed to be on a mound by June 10. While the Mets have not completely ruled out Harvey pitching in 2014, it is not something they are planning on at the moment, according to the team sources.

“If something happens to him, that would just be a huge blow,” one of the sources explained.

“We just want him to take it a little slower. Nobody wants him to be less competitive, we just want to be cautious.”

Harvey is continuing his rehab at the Mets’ spring-training complex in Port St. Lucie while the team is on its 11-game road trip.

Matt Harvey wants to pitch this season and Mets might relent: Report

Matt Harvey is planning to pitch this season — and the Mets might actually be down with his quest to get back on the mound sooner than later.

Might be.

Less than three weeks away from throwing off a mound for the first time since his Oct. 22 Tommy John surgery, the rehabbing Mets righthander said Tuesday the idea of pitching for the club in August or September felt “possible.”

Harvey wants to be pitching by August, telling Sports Illustrated that coming back well ahead of the typical 12-month recovery time for Tommy John surgery will give him "peace of mind."

"Of course, I won't do it unless I'm cleared to do it," Harvey said. "But I want to pitch before the year ends. I want to make five, six, seven starts this year. I asked , 'If I want to come back in August, when do I need to start throwing off a mound?' They said June 10. So, that's what we have penciled in right now. That's the plan."

General manager Sandy Alderson said he can understand why injured players want to return early, though to him it's an "open question" whether it is counterproductive for players recovering from Tommy John surgery.

“I don’t think the original schedule has changed. He is still scheduled to go on the mound in early June,” Alderson said. “Whether he comes back this year or next will be a function of how he rehabs once he gets back on the mound. It will also be subject to the best medical information we can obtain, from our doctors and whatever other information that is out there that might shed light on what’s an appropriate recovery time.”

But a cautious Alderson will stand his ground if necessary.

"But the one thing we don't want to do is be put in a situation [where] someone, Matt or anyone else, has a setback because we've pushed a natural recovery process further than we should have," he added.