David Peterson Turns In Another Strong Appearance

David Peterson picked up right where he left off.

After an impressive 2024 campaign — finally healthy after dealing with a hip ailment — the tall left-hander has emerged as one of the more reliable options in the New York Mets’ rotation. Sure, pitchers are typically ahead of hitters in spring training, but Peterson has now turned in back-to-back strong outings, giving Mets fans and the front office plenty of reason to feel optimistic about his role in a rotation full of question marks.

This time last year, suggesting that Peterson would be one of New York’s most dependable starters heading into 2025 would have gotten you laughed out of the room. He struggled through a dreadful 2023 after a promising 2022, ultimately undergoing surgery to repair a damaged labrum in his left hip.

That procedure changed everything.

And while WAR isn’t the end-all, be-all of pitching stats, the improvement was staggering— jumping from 0.5 WAR in 2023 to 2.9 in 2024. His ERA dropped from 5.03 in 21 starts to 2.90 across the same workload. He also became a secret weapon for New York in the postseason.

Interestingly, he struck out 27 fewer batters in 10 more innings, and the underlying metrics suggested he should’ve regressed. Yet Peterson leaned on generating weak contact, inducing plenty of ground balls, and limiting hard-hit contact in what became his most complete season as a major leaguer.

Peterson allowed just three hard-hit balls in New York’s 7-3 spring training win over the Marlins on Saturday. Across four innings, he surrendered just one hit, struck out two, and walked two, keeping Miami off the scoreboard, as he’s done all spring. And, while the Marlins’ lineup isn’t exactly the 1927 Yankees, he wasn’t facing minor leaguers on the backfields of Port St. Lucie; these were legitimate big leaguers, and Peterson delivered yet again.

Saturday marked his first official start of the spring, and he has now thrown seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits while striking out seven. In his previous outing, he fanned five without a walk. He added two free passes on Saturday but still looked in control, keeping hitters off balance and limiting hard contact.

If Peterson keeps this up, he won’t just be a dependable arm in the Mets’ rotation — he’ll be a stabilizing force on a staff that desperately needs one. His resurgence in 2024 was no fluke, and early returns this spring suggest he’s ready to build on it. For a Mets pitching staff full of uncertainty, Peterson might be the sure thing they didn’t know they had.

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