Throughout this current off-season, the Mets have added some big arms for both the rotation and the bullpen. The Mets were able to pull off a blockbuster trade that landed the team’s star pitcher Carlos Carrasco as well as Francisco Lindor. The Mets also recently signed Taijuan Walker to join the rotation for the next two seasons. The rotation seemed to be full once they signed Walker, as deGrom would obviously be the #1 starter followed by Marcus Stroman, Carlos Carrasco, David Peterson and Walker. But once the spring training games started a couple of weeks ago, there now seems to be a competition to see who the fifth starter of the rotation is going to be. The guy who seems to be in the competition is second year player David Peterson. There should be no way that the Mets take out Peterson from a starting spot when the time comes up in the first week of April.
The Mets were able to trade for right handed pitcher Jordan Yamamoto from the Marlins and Joey Lucchesi from the Padres in addition to adding Carrasco, and both guys have some experience of being starters in the major leagues. It was a smart decision bringing these two guys in, but when everyone in the rotation is healthy, excluding Noah Syndergaard who won’t be back until at least June, these guys should not be in the rotation. This is absolutely nothing against Lucchesi or Yamamoto, as I’m a fan of both of them, but having either of them placed in the rotation over David Peterson makes absolutely no sense.
David Peterson entered the Mets starting rotation in the first week of the season last year after Marcus Stroman went down with an injury just before Opening Day. Since his first start, Peterson showed that he was made the majors for a reason and he had an amazing rookie campaign. He posted an ERA of just over three while having a win-loss record of 6-2. Peterson was undoubtedly the Mets second best pitcher last year behind deGrom, and to take him out of the rotation is not something that should even be considered at this point in time.
Removing Peterson from the rotation after a good season for a guy who has never played in a New York uniform before should not be what the Mets elect to do.
With the recent news of Carrasco suffering an elbow injury, either Yamamoto or Lucchesi will be able to slide right into rotation and it will be nice for fans as well as the team to really see what they have in the new acquisitions. But when Carrasco does return in a couple of weeks/months, he will have a spot back in the rotation.
David Peterson proved that he should be a part of the Mets starting rotation going forward, and he should be one of the players on the team that get the nod every fifth day.
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
