The controversy that has seized the attention of baseball fans, over how the Mets should handle Matt Harvey, may seem to be a debate over money, ego and the integrity of the ligaments in his pitching elbow.
It is about all those things. But it’s also a window into one of the most important, but under-discussed, elements of how employers and employees relate to each other in the modern economy. The choices that the Mets, and Mr. Harvey, will make in the weeks ahead are just an unusually public version of the choices every company must make about how it treats its workers, and how those workers react to those choices.