The idea, Mets manager Terry Collins estimates, came out of six or more hours of discussion over several days between him and pitching coach Dan Warthen. This was probably three weeks ago, when they saw what Noah Syndergaard was doing, looked at the schedule, noted that Dillon Gee was due back soon and knew they needed a plan to protect youngsters Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom from too much work.
So a plan was born, a very different plan and when the Mets were in Pittsburgh May 22-24, Collins and Warthen met with those four, Bartolo Colon and Jon Niese.