Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized
Before the Mets gave up 12 runs to the Cardinals on Monday, David Peterson made a statement at the start of the game.
Facing a Cardinals lineup that featured many of their regular season starters, Peterson struck out three batters, walked one, and didn’t allow a hit over two innings of work. Peterson’s slider looked particularly good in his Grapefruit league debut. In 2022, batters hit .179 and whiffed 47.9% of the time against the pitch. Overall, recorded 3.83 ERA, 10.7 SO/9, and 1.337 WHIP in 105 2/3 innings.
After the game, Peterson spoke with Mike Puma about his start and goal of refining his pitches. “I have really tried to have five pitches that the hitters have to worry about instead of two or three and then have another few that I might throw,” Peterson said. “But to spread out some of that usage and have multiple weapons against different hitters.”
As for the pitch clock and how it will affect him this upcoming season, Peterson said, “As someone who likes to work faster than normal, it doesn’t really affect me. It was fun to kind of keep my eye on it and see how I could play with timings and holds and try to use it in my favor.” Peterson was one of the fastest workers in MLB last year with and without runners on base.
Peterson got a taste of the pitch clock in 2022 after starting six games with Triple-A Syracuse. Unfortunately for Peterson, he may find himself starting the 2023 season with the Syracuse Mets.
As of now, Peterson is projected as the Mets’ sixth starter, behind Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, José Quintana, and Carlos Carrasco. He’s an above-average sixth starter, though, and he likely won’t start the year on the MLB roster as a reliever.
