“After further consultation with doctors, Mets pitcher Matt Harvey has elected to have surgery to repair a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow,” the Mets announced in a statement.

Harvey was diagnosed with the partial UCL on Aug. 26. The Mets shut him down, but he all along has been saying he might be able to avoid surgery. No such luck, as it turns out.

Harvey, 24, was 9-5 with a 2.27 ERA and 191 strikeouts in 26 starts this season. He started the All-Star Game and was considered a top Cy Young candidate.

The Mets had planned to make him a centerpiece of their efforts to contend in 2014.


CANDIDATES TO REPLACE BAKER


Dusty Baker is out as manager of the Cincinnati Reds after six seasons, and GM Walt Jocketty tells MLB.com the club will move quickly to fill the position.

"We'll probably start assembling the list next week," Jocketty said. "I'd like to try and get it over with sooner than later. I'm sure we will be very thorough and put the right list together and hire the right person."

So who are the leading candidates to replace Baker?:

* Jim Riggleman, 60, has managed the San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners and Washington Nationals. His tenure in Washington ended in controversy when he unexpectedly resigned during the middle of the 2011 season. Upset about his contract situation, Riggleman gave Washington an ultimatum: Extend his contract, or lose him immediately. Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo didn't blink and eventually hired Davey Johnson to manage the team.

He managed the Reds' Class AAA affiliate in 2013 after managing the Class AA team in 2012.

* Bryan Price has been a major league coach since 2001, including the past four seasons as Cincinnati's pitching coach. Cincinnati pitchers think highly of Price and his communication skills, according to Cincinnati.com. He was a candidate for the Miami Marlins' vacancy last offseason.

"His reputation precedes him," Reds starter Bronson Arroyo told MLB.com. "I think he'd do a hell of a job. He's as organized and punctual as anybody I've ever seen in this game."

* One-time major league infielder David Bell (son of former All-Star 3B and manager Buddy Bell) was the third-base coach for the Chicago Cubs in 2013, but was let go when manager Dale Sveum was fired last week. The Cincinnati native managed in the Reds system for three years, including a stint with Class AAA Louisville in 2012.

* Tony La Russa's name has come up because he's close to Jocketty (who worked with him in Oakland and hired him to manage the Cardinals). But it's unlikely the 69-year-old La Russa will come out of retirement.

"Tony, probably not, because I don't think he wants to manage anymore," Jocketty said.

* Jose Oquendo: Jocketty is familiar with long-time Cardinals third-base coach from his time in St. Louis. Oquendo, 50, has been mentioned frequently as a managerial candidate over the years.

"Oquendo, I can't say right now. I can't comment on him because he's under contract," Jocketty said.


A-ROD SUIT EXPOSES MLB


Major League Baseball is missing the point.

In a statement to the lawsuit filed by Alex Rodriguez on Thursday, MLB said, "While we vehemently deny the allegations in the complaint, none of those allegations is relevant to the real issue: whether Mr. Rodriguez violated the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program by using and possessing numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including Testosterone and human Growth Hormone, over the course of multiple years and whether he violated the Basic Agreement by attempting to cover-up his violations of the Program by engaging in a course of conduct intended to obstruct and frustrate the Office of the Commissioner's investigation."

The "real issue" never has been whether Rodriguez violated the terms of the drug program. If it was, there never would have been any lawsuits because that agreement has terms and an arbitration system in place. MLB took the A-Rod case outside the boundaries of that program when it slapped Rodriguez with a 211-game suspension — the rest of the 2013 season at the time of the ban, plus the entire 2014 season.

Throughout the Biogenesis saga, MLB has tried to make things neat and tidy when nothing about what's happening meets that standard. Ryan Braun got a 65-game suspension -- the rest of the 2013 season when he was banned -- and then the rest of the players involved, except for Rodriguez, got 50-game suspensions that ended their 2013 seasons, with no further penalty carrying into the future. Nelson Cruz's suspension ended with Game 162, but the Texas Rangers played a 163rd game because they were tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for the American League wild card, so, whoopsie-doozles, Cruz was back on the field for a 2013 regular-season game.

In A-Rod's case, MLB was pretty clearly making up the rules as it goes along. The drug program's specified suspension lengths are 50 games for a first offense, 100 games for a second offense, and life for a third. Nowhere is there any talk about "rest of the season" or "the following season" or "211 games." If A-Rod wants to talk about a witch hunt against him, this is some of his best evidence, and really, Bud Selig made a critical error by going outside the bounds of the drug program but not invoking his Best Interests Of Baseball powers.

So now we get arbitration hearings in New York, and a lawsuit from Rodriguez that has all kinds of fun claims about handoffs of suitcases full of cash, sexual shenanigans, and general skullduggery. Right in the middle of the playoffs.

Did Alex Rodriguez use performance-enhancing drugs? It doesn't even matter anymore. By filing his lawsuit to impeach the case that MLB has made against him, A-Rod has turned the tables and put the spotlight on the lengths MLB went to in its attempt to get him, operating outside the law of the game because, remember, the much-ballyhooed testing program caught three Biogenesis clients, but another dozen wound up getting suspended because of the investigation.


PUJOLS SUES CLARK


Albert Pujols filed a lawsuit Friday against Jack Clark, the former St. Louis Cardinals star who said on his radio show in August that he “knew for a fact" that Pujols took performance-enhancing drugs, STLToday.com reports.

Pujols' lawsuit calls Clark a "struggling radio talk show host" who told "malicious, reckless and outrageous falsehoods" that have damaged Pujols' reputation, humiliated him and caused him mental anguish and anxiety.

Clark's attorney, Chet Pleban, told the newspaper he has not seen the lawsuit.

"Jack has said all along and, certainly, continues to say that if Albert Pujols wants to file the lawsuit, he looks forward to defending the lawsuit before 12 unbiased people who don't have a horse in the race," Pleban said. "And we'll look forward to the discovery process and the deposition of Mr. Pujols. I have a variety of questions for Mr. Pujols."

Clark, a four-time All-Star who played in the majors from 1975 to 1992, made the PED allegations Aug. 2 on a radio show he co-hosted on St. Louis' WGNU 920 AM. Clark said Pujols' former trainer, Chris Mihlfeld, told him 10 years ago that he "shot (Pujols) up."

"The trainer that worked with him, threw him batting practice from Kansas City, that worked him out every day, basically told me that’s what he did,” Clark said on the air.

Mihfeld denied the allegations, and the company that hired Clark and co-host Kevin Slaten announced the two had been told not to return to work. Clark and Slaten technically couldn't be fired because they were independent contractors, but they no longer have a show on WGNU.

Pujols was a superstar for the Cardinals from 2001 to 2011. He signed a free agent contract with the Los Angeles Angels before the 2012 season, but has has battled injuries and has struggled at the plate for his new team.

Contributors: Justin McGuire, The Associated Press