David Peterson has become even more important to the Mets for the 2021 season after Carlos Carrasco went down with a hamstring tear, and he gave manager Luis Rojas a reason to be optimistic in his final spring start.
Peterson, now expected to be the fourth starter in the rotation while Carrasco and Noah Sydergaard work their way back from injuries, pitched six full innings on Friday night against the Nationals, allowing just two runs on four hits and one walk. He finishes his spring with a 3.75 ERA over 12 innings.
"I thought his secondary pitches worked," Rojas said during a Zoom call with reporters after Friday's game. "We saw the changeup and the slider, his fastball velo is going to help those other pitches play. He was poised, he fielded his position well too."
Peterson needed just 78 pitches to get through six frames, throwing 50 strikes, a level of efficiency that can be huge for the Mets, who like every other team in the league this year, will be working to keep arms fresh coming off the shortened 2020 season.
"He was below the pitch count we expected for six innings," Rojas said. "That's always a good sign. The guys that can pitch to contact like that and get ahead in counts, that will be huge. That's something we definitely take into consideration knowing that last year we got affected by some short outings. We're very aware of that. So when we see guys pitching like that, that's huge."
Peterson showed his potential in his debut season last year, pitching to a 3.44 ERA over nine starts, allowing 36 hits over 49.2 innings, and a contact pitcher like himself could benefit from an improved defense behind him this season, which would only help limit his pitch count and go deeper into games to keep the other arms fresh throughout the season.
"I think that's huge," Peterson said. "I think it's big for being able to get the hitters back in the dugout...as a starter I want to go as deep into the game as possible. So when you keep the pitch count down and get quick outs, that's an easy way to go deeper into games. It was good to get through innings quickly and be able to get some contact, get some ground balls and some outs and get out of there."
Peterson always figured to be a lock for the back end of the rotation, but after losing Carrasco, he will be a crucial part to the Mets pitching staff in his sophomore campaign.
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