PORT ST. DEFLECT

Met rift over whether to use Zack out of pen

Mets announcing Syndergaard as Opening Day starter is poor distraction from Wheeler’s arm issue

PORT ST. LUCIE − The Mets wanted to change the conversation as quickly as possible. In a spring training practically dedicated to injury prevention for pitchers, they found themselves scrambling to downplay Zack Wheeler’s elbow tenderness, a condition they didn’t expect Dan Warthen to announce to the media on Wednesday.

So on Thursday Terry Collins announced that Noah Syndergaard will be the Opening Day starter. Surprise, surprise. Never mind that Collins had informally acknowledged as much in January, or that Syndergaard was the obvious choice, as the only one of the top starters not coming off some type of surgery.

It’s just that the Mets’ manager has never made the official announcement this early, and I have a feeling he did so this time only after being prompted by his bosses. Jeff Wilpon, after all, just happened to be in the building, having flown in from New York Wednesday night.

As if the Syndergaard announcement makes the Wheeler news disappear. The Mets should know better by now, having practiced more than their share of damage control over the years.

In fact, Warthen was simply trying to get out in front of the situation, knowing on Wednesday that reporters would notice Wheeler wasn’t throwing a bullpen with the other starters on Thursday.

Makes sense, right? But the Mets’ brass seems to be trying to will the starting pitchers to good health, and as such it would have preferred to keep Wheeler’s elbow tenderness quiet, even if it meant needing to invent a reason to explain why he wasn’t throwing on Thursday.

It’s not as if the Mets are the only organization that tries to hide such news, hoping it will resolve itself quickly enough that no one is the wiser.

And, who knows, perhaps this will be merely a speed bump in Wheeler’s road to recovery − though his various setbacks since Tommy John surgery in March of 2015 obviously make that a dicey proposition.

It was Wheeler himself, on the first day of camp, who admitted, “I’m not getting my hopes up. I’ve had so many setbacks.”

Nevertheless, Collins said Wheeler “felt a lot better today’’ after taking anti-inflammatory medicine a day earlier, had no issues throwing lightly on flat ground Thursday, and the Mets hope he can resume throwing bullpens on Friday.

Of course, hearing from Wheeler might have been more convincing. But he didn’t talk to the media, other than to tell Daily News beat writer Kristie Ackert “I am not worried’’ as he walked to his car after the workout.

In any case, the fallout from Warthen’s press conference on Wednesday spills beyond the news of Wheeler’s elbow tenderness. Most significantly, it became clear the front office hadn’t consulted either him or Collins on the possibility of using the righthander out of the bullpen, an idea that Sandy Alderson talked about publicly this winter.

Warthen obviously thinks it’s a terrible idea, noting that Wheeler “doesn’t recover very well. Because he has a lot of elbow flexion, he has a lot of soreness after each start. So if he’s in the bullpen, he throws an inning and a third and (we tell him) ‘ok, you have three days off.’ That doesn’t work.”

The big-picture problem is the Mets feel they should put a significant innings limit on Wheeler, since he hasn’t pitched the last two seasons. Warthen said that number would be in the “low 100s,’’ which is why Alderson was toying with starting the season with Wheeler in the pen, to save innings.

Warthen, meanwhile, laid out his own plan for the righthander to make 25 starts and still stay under, say 150 innings.

His idea is to use Wheeler as a starter, skip him occasionally and limit him to a maximum of five innings per start for at least the first 2-3 months of the season.

That idea is full of potential flaws as well, perhaps putting a major burden on the bullpen or creating the need for another starter, Robert Gsellman or Seth Lugo, to prepare to pitch on those days. It could work or it could get messy. Whatever the Mets do, Collins has emphasized that he wants to make sure Wheeler, if all goes well, is available late in the season and potentially in the postseason.

So now, according to a source on Thursday, the Mets are coming to grips with the idea that it might just make the most sense to bring Wheeler along very, very slowly and have him start the season in extended spring training.

There Wheeler would throw just enough to stay in rhythm, building up to be ready in June, perhaps, at which point he’d be able to pitch for the Mets without restrictions.

That does seem to be the most logical solution, and the Mets still believe Wheeler will get past this latest setback and return to pitch at a high level.

But just in case anyone was wondering, Wheeler won’t be the opening day starter. Thank goodness the Mets cleared that up for everyone on Thursday.