As Major League Baseball heads into May, things haven’t been easy for the team with the highest payroll in the sport. The Mets have struggled, and the team’s biggest bugaboo so far has been its starting pitching. Not only has New York not gotten the most out of a rotation with a hefty price tag, but the team has also already dealt with injuries to three of its starting pitchers.
Fortunately, the Mets entered the 2023 season with a good bit of rotation depth, including a former first-round pick in David Peterson. But Peterson has played a significant role in why the Mets starting rotation has the eighth-worst ERA in all of baseball and the third-worst in the National League.
The 27-year-old Peterson has good stuff but struggles with control. While control has been an issue for him thus far, so has everything else. Peterson has been pretty horrific through six starts this season, as he’s pitched to a 1-4 record with a 7.34 ERA. His latest clunker earned him a demotion to Triple-A Syracuse.
Prior to the first game of Monday’s doubleheader, Mets manager Buck Showalter revealed his message to Peterson.
“Pitch better,” Showalter said pretty bluntly. “It’s not like you’re going down there, have to spend x amount of days there, and you’ll come back. We know what he’s capable of. In a couple of outings, he’s like a pitch away from having a good solid outing and hasn’t been able to make the pitch.”
Buck Showalter's message to David Peterson after the Mets sent him back to Triple-A?
"Pitch better…we know what he's capable of" pic.twitter.com/iu8HP8Arrt
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 1, 2023
The Mets will be getting Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander back this week, so the likelihood that Peterson is back up soon depends on injuries. While his future is unclear, it’s pretty clear that the Mets need him to pitch better and know that he can throw better.
[SNY]
