Another year removed from Tommy John Surgery, and Matt Harvey is feeling better than ever this Spring down in Port St. Lucie. With the feel of his slider back, MLB Network Radio’s Jim Bowden has already picked him as the 2016 NL Cy Young Award Winner. The pitch was responsible for 20% of his swing and misses a couple of years ago and to have it back in his arsenal makes him even more of a threat to hitters batting averages.

On the subject of winning the Cy Young, Harvey dismissed the talk and actually called himself a long shot being he shares the National League with the likes of Clayton Kershaw and Jake Arietta, but did acknowledge that anyone who picks up a baseball would love the honor.

When asked about anything else he was working on this Spring, Matt Harvey promptly spoke about his personal goal of hitting the 200 inning mark as a starting pitcher for the Mets. Working on early outs will no doubt get him to the 7th and 8th innings, easily surpassing his goal and hopefully getting his team get back to the postseason.

Even though the Mets fell just short of bringing home a third franchise championship, Harvey said the clubhouse doesn’t see it as a negative, but rather fuel for the fire to get back to the World Series. With the young rotation getting its feet wet with postseason experience this past fall, 2016 is sure to be a race for the ages against the Washington Nationals – and an even more exciting NLCS with the heavily favored Chicago Cubs.