Thor getting own catcher a no-brainer

DENVER — At least we learned the Mets’ stubbornness possesses a limit. At most? Well, at the risk of being overdramatic, at most, the Mets’ bullheadedness cost them a 2019 playoff berth.

As first reported by MLB.com and confirmed by The Post, when Noah Syndergaard takes the mound against the Rockies in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale at Coors Field, he’ll pitch to René Rivera, not Wilson Ramos, thereby granting Thor his wish to deploy either Rivera or Tomas Nido as his battery mate.

There’ll be no spinning this one: Nido started Monday night’s game, catching Steven Matz as the Mets dropped the series opener, 9-4, falling five games behind the Cubs in the race for the National League’s second wild-card spot, meaning that Ramos will start only one of the three contests in this set. No, this marks full capitulation on the Mets’ part, and the only question is, what took so long?

You know the numbers: Syndergaard owns a 5.20 ERA in 16 starts throwing to Ramos — including his past two, both Mets losses — and a 2.22 in a combined 11 starts pitching to either Nido (10 starts) or Rivera (one start). You know, from reading The Post, that Syndergaard pled multiple times to multiple team officials to pair up with Nido or Rivera, only to be denied.

If you consider Syndergaard a diva who should just shut up and learn to work with Ramos, then you must have missed the Hall of Fame career of Greg Maddux, who routinely avoided working with Braves top catcher Javier Lopez. Two other men enshrined in Cooperstown, Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson, also worked with personal catchers, as have other accomplished hurlers such as A.J. Burnett, David Cone, Clayton Kershaw, Jon Lester, Andy Pettitte. Before you argue that Syndergaard hasn’t done much as these guys, re

member that Pettitte, regarded as one of the game’s best people, expressed his preference for pitching to Jim Leyritz (over Joe Girardi) in 1996, his second major league season.

For sure, the age of analytics has taught us not to stay wedded to old philosophies just for the heck of it, yet more than ever, teams understand the importance of resting regulars, particularly their catchers, and building organizational depth. So wouldn’t the personal-catcher plan mesh with this as long as it doesn’t turn into a team-wide epidemic? Shouldn’t this be a nobrainer?

The Mets finally got there, even though they expended quite a few brain cells on their journey. If this constitutes too little, too late, then value still exists in having Syndergaard finishing the year strong for both his own confidence and his trade value.

Last week, in discussing the plan for Ramos to catch Syndergaard against the Dodgers, Mets manager Mickey Callaway said, “Noah obviously understands at this point that whoever is in the lineup, he’s going to go ahead and compete [with]. He’s recognized that to me. I think that he’s recognized that to everybody and I’m proud of him for that.”

Except this shouldn’t represent a test of character. That would come if, say, Nido and Rivera both suffered injuries and Syndergaard faced no choice but to pitch to Ramos. This should have been an instance of a team putting its player in an optimal situation.

That optimal situation arrives Wednesday for Syndergaard, and let’s face it: There’ll be some pressure on him to pitch well — at pitcher-unfriendly Coors, of all places — after everything that has transpired. No matter how it goes, this goes down as a winning move for the Mets, who should keep making such calls until they’re mathematically eliminated from the playoff race.