David Peterson 'too good of a pitcher' to pull from Mets' rotation. But for how long?

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Peterson again allowed five earned runs, as an opposing lineup again pounced on his pitches early in counts. Of Arizona’s six hits against Peterson, four came within the first three pitches of a plate appearance. Through three starts this season, Peterson has surrendered a hit within the first three pitches of a plate appearance 18 times, tied with the Texas Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi for the most in the major leagues. “A lot of it comes down to leaving balls up and away,” Peterson said, “and then taking advantage of those along with some of the other hits they had.” For Peterson, it’s a bad start after a bad finish. Despite five scoreless innings in his first start of 2026, Peteron’s ERA since the second half of last season is 5.09. These last two starts came against one of the worst offenses in baseball (the San Francisco Giants are 27th in OPS, .618) and one that ranked 12th in the National League in OPS (Arizona, .632) entering Wednesday. The Mets do not anticipate making a change to their rotation, manager Carlos Mendoza said. “As I am sitting here right now, no,” Mendoza said. There isn’t an obvious substitute for Peterson. Not yet, at least. Sean Manaea, operating as mostly a long reliever, isn’t quite there yet. He is still throwing his fastball around 89 mph. Though his results are fine (three earned runs in nine innings over three appearances), he is mostly pitching in low-leverage situations. For example, he relieved Peterson on Wednesday, covering the final four innings, and allowed two runs after Luis Robert Jr. failed to hang on to a fly ball with one out and the bases loaded in the eighth inning. In theory, other starting options consist of Tobias Myers, Jonah Tong and Christian Scott. Myers, however, is being used in a variety of ways out of the bullpen with strong results. And it’s reasonable to think that through three weeks of the season, the Mets aren’t yet ready to summon Tong or Scott from the minor leagues. The Mets left spring training with a traditional five-man rotation of Freddy Peralta, Peterson, Nolan McLean, Clay Holmes and Kodai Senga. That left Manaea in the bullpen. The plan was to revisit the idea of possibly inserting a sixth starter after two turns. The Mets’ starters are on their third turn in the middle of a stretch of nine straight games without a day off. This would’ve been the spot for an extra starter. Mendoza, however, said it isn’t necessary with how well the five starters are recovering from start to start. “No disappointment,” Manaea said. “I’m here to help this team win any way that I can.” The onus is on Peterson, an All-Star last season and a free agent after this season, to improve. New York might not be prepared to make a change just yet. What about after a couple more poor outings? By then, the Mets’ depth could change. Scott has made just one start and allowed six earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. After getting off to a rocky start in Triple A this season, Tong allowed two runs, two walks and one hit in five innings Wednesday. The Mets sent a message in spring training. Manaea is the highest-paid pitcher on the team. He just reached 10 years of service time Wednesday. If they are comfortable with taking him out of the rotation, it’s hard to see them hesitating about another change when necessary. From Mendoza’s perspective, part of Peterson’s problem Wednesday was an inability to execute a sinker inside to right-handed batters. “If he’s healthy, which he is, there’s no concern,” Mendoza said. “He’s too good of a pitcher.” Peterson saw things differently. “We relied on the sinker and changeup too much and allowed hitters to kind of sit over the plate,” Peterson said. “In my eyes, it’s more about usage than it is execution.” Either way, Peterson felt off mechanically in the first two innings. From there, he made adjustments, notably using his four-seam fastball more. Over his final three innings, he allowed just one walk. Of course, by then, the damage was done. With no changes ahead for the rotation, Peterson’s next start is lined up for the opener of a three-game series against the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers. “It doesn’t matter where my next one is,” Peterson said. “Fix what happened and move forward. It doesn’t matter who we’re going up against or where it is. Just be better for the next one and learn from it.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Will Sammon is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering the New York Mets and Major League Baseball. A native of Queens, New York, Will previously covered the Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Gators football for The Athletic, starting in 2018. Before that, he covered Mississippi State for The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi’s largest newspaper. Follow Will on Twitter @WillSammon