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UNC Baseball: Former Tar Heel Matt Harvey signs with Kansas City Royals

By Blake Cockrum

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - JULY 13: Pitcher Matt Harvey #33 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitches in the first innning of the MLB game against the Seattle Mariners at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on July 13, 2019 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - JULY 13: Pitcher Matt Harvey #33 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitches in the first innning of the MLB game against the Seattle Mariners at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on July 13, 2019 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images) /
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Former UNC baseball standout Matt Harvey inks minor league deal with Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals have signed starting pitcher Matt Harvey to a minor league contract, the organization announced on Tuesday night just ahead of the team’s game against the Detroit Tigers.

Harvey, 31, most recently played for the Los Angeles Angels, compiling a 3-5 record over 12 games with a career-worst 7.09 ERA. He surrendered 63 hits to just 39 strikeouts in 59.2 innings of work for the Angels, allowing 13 home runs and 47 earned runs against 266 batters.

To say that he wasn’t on top of his game would be an understatement, but that’s consistently been the case since 2015 when Harvey helped lead the New York Mets to the World Series against the eventual champion Royals. Although he gave up the lead in the ninth inning of the deciding Game 5 in that series, Harvey had a terrific 2015 campaign that saw him go 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA. He struck out 188 batters in 189.1 innings that season, giving up just 18 home runs and 37 earned runs over 755 batters faced. It was numbers like that which earned him the moniker of “The Dark Knight.”

Harvey has bounced around from New York to Cincinnati to Los Angeles in the years since, putting together a less-than-stellar record of 26-40. However, Harvey has a shot to play meaningful baseball with a major league organization, and if healthy, could do some good things in the pandemic-shortened season. Whether or not he returns to the form that earned him an All-Star appearance in 2013 is yet to be seen.

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