That order came as something of a surprise. The Mets had Harvey's supposed innings limit to deal with late this season, and they chose deGrom to open the best-of-five NL Division Series against the Dodgers, slotting Harvey in for Game 3 to limit him to one start.
deGrom also was New York's best pitcher over the course of the season, finishing fourth in the NL in ERA (2.54) and FIP (2.70), fifth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.4) and sixth in FanGraphs.com's wins above replacement (5.2). On the other hand, Harvey wasn't far behind him in any of those categories, and Collins had other factors to consider as well.