New York Mets manager Terry Collins said Matt Harvey is going to pitch a lot of openers during his career. This year, however, won't be one of them.

Harvey, who won't pitch Opening Day or the team's first home game after those assignments went to Bartolo Colon and Jacob deGrom, respectively, is scheduled to start the third game of the season against the Washington Nationals. That's an accomplishment in itself, said Harvey, who missed the entire 2014 season recovering from Tommy John surgery.

"For me, I'm just excited to be playing," Harvey told reporters. "That's an important series for us, obviously, opening up the season."

Collins said Colon, who led all Mets pitchers with 15 wins and 202 1/3 innings last year, was well-deserving of the Opening Day nod versus Nationals ace Max Scherzer, though he cautioned against reading too much into the decision.

''I know it's a big deal to a lot of people. To me it's not. It's one of 32 starts," Collins said. "You go back and look at what Bart did all season long, he earned it. Harv's going to pitch a lot of them. Over his career, he's going to pitch a lot of opening days."

For now, Harvey's just working on returning to the form that made him an All-Star in his first full season, when he led the league in FIP (2.01) and struck out 191 batters over 178 1/3 innings.

''Everything feels good,'' he said. ''The big thing now is getting from 60 pitches to closer to 100. Obviously, the weather's going to be warmer down here than it is up there, so getting a little extra prepared is definitely something we want to do in the next two starts.''

- With files from The Associated Press