Matt Harvey may have company in being shut down: Noah Syndergaard.

Matt Harvey can defuse the situation tonight by simply defeating the inept Washington Nationals and put his Met team in such a commanding position that it will be OK for the Mets to keep Harvey within the 180 regular season inning guideline of Harvey's doctor.  The Mets would, however, still have what was apparently an unforeseen situation: the Mets playing in the tournament, which could mean five more starts for Harvey, which would likely result in Harvey having to pitch an additional 30-35 innings.  Oops.

But while Met fans are crushing Harvey for waiting too long to deal with his season ending limits, they seem to have overlooked a comparable situation for rookie Noah Syndergaard.

Birthdays:
Harvey: March 27, 1989
Syndergaard: August 29, 1992

Harvey is about 3.5 years older but most of their professional innings are for the same years.  Syndergaard threw 13 pro innings at age 17 in 2010.

year	Harvey	Syndergaard
2011	136	59
2012	159	104
2013	178	118
2014	0	133
2015	166	152
total	639	566

Harvey has thrown only 60 more pro innings than Syndergaard.

Syndergaard has been building up his work load gradually but I'm guessing that even the Mets must have a limit for him and that the nasty old tournament is messing up their lack of plans.

What if the Mets qualify for the tournament but two of their starting pitchers need to be shut down?  Whatever will the Mets do?  Manager Terry Collins supposedly still regrets allowing Johan Santana to finish the only no-hitter in Mets history.

How Big A Deal Is A No-Hitter? Saturday, March 16, 2013

June 1, 2012 Johan Santana became the first Met pitcher to throw a no-hitter: 8-0 against St. Louis in New York.  Met manager Terry Collins let Santana throw 134 pitches even though Santana missed the entire 2011 season with a bad arm.  It is inconceivable that Collins would have let Santana throw 134 pitches in any other regular season circumstance... His final appearance was August 17.  Santana's ERA had risen from 2.38 after his no-hitter to 4.85.
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Santana never pitched again in the major leagues after 2012.  His career was over at 33.  With Minnesota Santana had won the Cy Young award in 2004 and 2006.

How will Collins handle the current situation, especially with media people foaming at the mouth like Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, who today went on yet another verbal rampage demanding that Matt Harvey pitch through the tournament?  Russo is a disgrace.  The Matt Harvey issue is bringing out the worst aspects of baseball.

It's not about what Matt Harvey said or did earlier in the season.  It's not about Harvey's agent.  It's not even about the Mets qualifying for the tournament.  It's about Matt Harvey having a note from his doctor excusing him from work after another 14 innings.  Clowns like Chris Russo can huff and puff all they want but that does not change the essentials elements.