Cincinnati Reds: There’s no way Matt Harvey starts today, right?

Good morning Reds Country. Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Matt Harvey has been claimed on revocable waivers. What does that mean? It means that if he takes the mound for today’s start, the Reds have totally screwed up.

The Cincinnati Reds finally have their shot to unload starting pitcher Matt Harvey. Who’s the team? We don’t know. What will the Reds get in return? No clue. Are we sure that Harvey will be traded this time? Not entirely. But one thing is clear; under no circumstance should Harvey start today’s game in Chicago.

The Reds went out on a limb back in May and traded away catcher Devin Mesoraco for the New York Mets oft-injured pitcher Matt Harvey. It made sense at the time. The Reds had no use for Mesoraco since Tucker Barnhart is firmly entrenched as the Reds starting catcher, and Cincinnati needed all the help they could get in their starting rotation. Maybe they could resurrect the old Matt Harvey.

Well, they didn’t necessarily do that, but Harvey did play better than expected. Through his first 12 games with the Reds, Harvey was 5-3 with a 3.64 ERA. He appeared to put his previous injuries behind him, had good velocity on his fastball, and the Reds looked like geniuses. Everyone was all set to see Harvey flipped to a contending team before the non-waiver trade deadline.

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Then came July 22nd. In what could’ve been his final outing with the Reds, Harvey laid an egg. The right-hander went 3 2/3 innings against the red-hot Pittsburgh Pirates. He allowed 8 runs, walked 4 batters and allowed 8 hits, including 4 home runs. It was, by far, his worst outing since coming to the Queen City.

Harvey recovered the following start, going 5 innings against the Philadephia Phillies. He allowed only 2 runs on 2 hits during that game, but the damage had been done. Other teams saw cracks in Harvey’s game, and as the trade deadline came and went, the Reds didn’t receive an offer that they felt was good enough for another team to gainHarvey’s services for the remainder of the season.

The Cincinnati Reds were left with the prospect of moving Harvey after the non-waiver trade deadline. Well, that now appears to be a possibility. According to multiple reports, Matt Harvey, and Reds center fielder Billy Hamilton have been claimed on non-revocable waivers. Both by unknown teams. So, what does that mean?

It means the Reds have 48-hours from the time the claims were submitted to work out a trade, keep the player as part of their team, or release said player to the claiming team outright. For a player like Harvey, two of the three scenarios make sense.

The only way the Cincinnati Reds can botch this is to hang on to Matt Harvey. In no rational thought process should Cincinnati bring Harvey back, right? There’s little to no chance that he’ll re-sign in the offseason, and at this point, with the season lost, he’s only taking up a spot in the rotation for some of the younger pitchers on the Reds staff.

Harvey is scheduled to start today’s game at 2:00 PM ET. We should know by then what his future is with the Cincinnati Reds. If he’s still in the starting lineup, the Reds have bungled this whole thing.