David Peterson’s Perfect Spring Continues

David Peterson really wants to be in the Mets’ opening rotation.

There might not be a better pitcher in any team’s camp than him right now.

Whether it’s extra motivation or he’s reached what the Mets saw when he was their first-round pick in 2017, Peterson is absolutely dealing on the mound.

On Monday, his flawless spring continued against the Cardinals.

Peterson pitched four innings, allowed one hit, and struck out four. Although his walk count spiked to four even though he threw 40 of 66 pitches for strikes.

“I have mixed feelings about it, good and bad,” Peterson said. “There’s stuff I need to clean up and stuff that I thought I did well, but overall I got my pitches in and thought I did well and felt good about where we are headed.”

This spring, Peterson has pitched 12 innings, struck out 13, allowed zero runs, and a WHIP of 0.75. He’s allowed just one hit, a leadoff bunt single to Brendan Donovan yesterday.

It’s a race between Peterson and Tylor Megill for the rotation spot that opened with Jose Quintana‘s injury. Megill was reported as the Mets favorite in the race but Peterson has outperformed his teammate.

Megill did not start Monday’s game, he came out of the bullpen. It’s possible the Mets see that as a better role for him in the intermediate with the flurry of injuries to the Mets relievers.

Megill’s day was rough. In 3 and 2/3 innings, the Cardinals scored six runs, three earned, and he walked five batters while striking out two.

Maybe more concerning than his location issues was his velocity dip. Megill was down almost two miles per hour on his fastball and there were even greater drops on his off-speed pitches.

“Not my best day to say the least,” Megill said. “I couldn’t really locate a slider today, so that was a big problem and it was a little bit all over the place. I had a good curveball today and threw some good fastballs to the top of the zone, I was trying to work today, but more walks than necessary.”

Megill was not able to generate swing-and-miss stuff. Batters swung 15 times at his fastball and missed twice. They swung seven times at his slider and missed once.

“They are both fine,” manager Buck Showalter said. “They are physically in a good place, they got their pitch count up and I am OK with where both those guys are.”

Megill said his drop in velocity is more due to lasting longer in game but he also attributes it to the more relaxed atmosphere of spring training versus being on the Major League stage.

A six-man rotation is still possible for the Mets, and they’ll have these two piggyback one another next week before making a choice.