What's he like? As MLB opens clubhouses for 2022, the inability to answer that question with Matt Harvey is uncomfortable

Covering Matt Harvey on the Orioles without ever meeting him has left an unsettling feeling as his name crops up in relation to the Tyler Skaggs case. Would clubhouse access have changed that?

By chance, the day baseball writers learned that for the first time in nearly two years they’d be allowed access to the clubhouse to do their jobs to the best of their ability was the same day a symptom of its absence hit home.

In a courtroom in Texas where a former Los Angeles Angels employee is on trial for his role in the drug overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs in 2019, there could be plenty of mention and even an appearance from former Oriole Matt Harvey. According to an ESPN report from the trial, Harvey will be called as a witness and “named as a possible drug source,” reporter T.J. Quinn tweeted Thursday night.

A friend in the game, upon seeing this, asked me what Harvey was like. It’s a question that comes in frequently from contacts with other clubs who want to know everything they can about a player, though rarely under these circumstances. More often than not recently, the answer has been that I really have no idea. 

Truthfully, I’m not sure what it would be worth if reporters had been allowed in the clubhouse when it comes to having an opinion on something like this. To truly get a sense of someone takes years, and even then only happens if they let you. Along the way, there’s still a dynamic of unease involved in any interaction between a reporter and a player in that environment. 

It’s a fishbowl within a fishbowl. If you’re fortunate enough to find someone to talk to, about baseball or the team or family, it’s all out in the open. Other reporters will float over to check and ensure they aren’t missing anything. Players and team officials will log it in their minds. It’s always worth it, even when it’s not. It’s just often surface-level on purpose.

And that’s just with the good relationships. Some players aren’t interested in small talk, ball talk, or anything else. Maybe Harvey would have been like that. We certainly would have found out by the reaction that would have come my way had we ever spoken and I had the chance to talk about what must have been very similar experiences for us graduating high school in Connecticut back in 2007. 

That chance never came, for a variety of reasons. So to me, Harvey was the preconceptions I got from other reporters who were around him with the Mets or knew of what it was like then, and a face on a Zoom screen. I enjoyed when he let a bad word slip during his postgame sessions, though he didn’t do it as sheepishly as Kevin Gausman would. I took teammates like John Means’ word for him that just seeing him do his work was beneficial to the rest of the staff. I have little else to go off, and what I do have isn’t worth anything, anway.

Would a year of Harvey breezing past me and the rest of the beat reporters on his way to throw a bullpen or catch the bus have been enough to set at least a personal baseline for what to think about seeing his name mixed up with something like this? Perhaps. In any walk of life, those who present themselves as good people are often regarded as such until proven otherwise, and conversely, bad-guy vibes don’t come off someone by accident.

It would just be nice to have an idea, which is why I’m glad to not have to report on any of this, and I’m glad access is restored for the full-time writers whenever baseball comes back. 

There’s no way to quantify the value of that to anyone but those who get to experience it. I trust that anyone who has made it to this space can discern what is reported independently versus on a Zoom call, but know the vast majority of fans don’t care at all. Where the players are concerned, the only thing having outsiders in your space for an hour every day is preferable to is probably Zoom appointments.

I just know it was worth something to me, and on the occasions I get to be back at the ballpark, I’m glad it’s an option again. It’s just strange that on the day that news came down, the impact of not having it for so long hit particularly close – and upon examination trivialized it at the same time. 

What I thought about Matt Harvey based on how he did or didn’t interact with me wouldn’t even be in the same galaxy of relevance as Tyler Skaggs’ family finding answers about what happened to him, and for the individuals and institutions deemed responsible to be made accountable for it. If anyone asked me in a public forum, I wouldn’t even be able to give an opinion either way.

The part where I have no idea is the tough one. To be a reporter is to want to know the answer to everything, and clubhouse access is one tool to learn as much as possible about what you cover. I’m not really sure which, if any, of those words apply to me anymore. I’m just someone who is fascinated to find out what’s going on with the Orioles and has the ability to write a newsletter about it, and am glad the world where beat reporters have the ability to best answer such questions exists again.