What It Means:

He'll get the nod April 3 in a World Series rematch with the Kansas City Royals. It's Harvey's first Opening Day start. Tabbing Harvey was an easy choice for the Mets with Jacob deGrom (back) a little behind schedule.

Harvey was terrific last year in his first season back from Tommy John surgery, going 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA across 29 outings. He turned in a superb 3.24 xFIP with 8.94 strikeouts per nine innings. The only concern is workload as Harvey tossed 216 innings last season, the most ever for a pitcher in his first campaign following Tommy John surgery. We rank him as our No. 12 starting pitcher, according to our 2016 projections. We have him recording a 24.2 strikeout rate with a 3.17 ERA.