Halladay can feel Harvey's pain

NEW YORK -- The Mets pray that Matt Harvey's injury story finishes similar to Roy Halladay's with the Blue Jays and Phillies.

Harvey has a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow which could require Tommy John surgery. But Harvey hopes to avoid surgery, like Halladay, who suffered a tear in his right elbow in 2006. Halladay never required surgery and resumed his All-Star career without a hitch.

Halladay spoke with Harvey on Tuesday at the request of Mets manager Terry Collins.

"From what I understand, I think 95 percent of the pitchers in baseball have some changes in their ligament," Halladay said before Wednesday's game against the Mets at Citi Field. "That's not anything out of the ordinary. But I got a chance to talk to Andy Pettitte. He went through the same thing."

Halladay said he developed a training program with the Blue Jays athletic training staff and said he resumed a normal Spring Training in 2007.

"I've never had a forearm issue since then," Halladay said. "I had some pretty good years after that. Most every pitcher is going to have changes in the UCL, so once they get the inflammation down and he gets that second opinion, if it turns out that it's not something that has to be repaired ... it sounded to me that it's very similar to what I had.

"Really, it was a strengthening program we started during the winter, doing a lot of wrist and forearm manual exercises and some different treatments, contrasting and things like that. So I just shared that with him and what I went through. [Dr. James] Andrews had told me that they felt like at some point they would have to go in and repair it, that was eight years ago and I've never had an issue since."