Let me take you behind the curtain a bit.

The Mets had a day game on June 12 at Citi Field against the Nationals. They were on a five-game winning streak, owners of the majors’ best record and leading the NL East by five games. Better yet, they had six healthy starting pitchers going round and round at a collective high level, and Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea were nearing returns.

I always try to go to the ballpark with at least one idea of what I want to execute as a column. My thought was how the Mets would maneuver to turn eight potential starters into a five-man rotation. Furthering this was that earlier that day, it was reported that Aaron Civale, after being bounced out of the Brewers rotation by the promotion of top prospect Jacob Misiorowski, had requested a trade (Civale would be dealt the next day by a Milwaukee team with a rotation surplus).

Well, the Mets were on the brink of a rotation surplus, and Paul Blackburn was a lot like Civale. He already was the odd man out even prior to the return of Montas and Manaea. He also was a right-handed, back-end starter due to be a free agent after the season, all like Civale.