Mets’ David Peterson on His Health, Changing Pitch Mix, More

DENVER — What a difference a year makes for New York Mets starting pitcher David Peterson.

This time last season, Peterson had just returned to the rotation following a stint in the bullpen after he struggled to a 6.46 ERA through his first 11 starts (a combined 54.1 innings) of the year. Opponents were hitting .305 against him, and both he and the Mets were looking for ways to turn around his season.

The change to the bullpen suited him as he logged a 2.25 ERA over his next six games (8.0 innings) in relief. However, there was still something that just wasn’t right with Peterson, even with a return to the rotation after the Mets became sellers at the MLB trade deadline.

“I had a little bit of a groin strain in April. I didn’t go on the IL (injured list) or anything. It was something I had to work through,” Peterson said. “Then it kind of went downhill, mostly in the second half of the year when I was really battling pain start to start. It got to a point where every five days we were trying to piece it together and figure it out.”

An MRI after the season concluded showed that Peterson had been dealing with a torn labrum in Peterson’s hip. Surgery was needed and performed shortly after the revelation, leaving Peterson to find a way to not only get back, but also to get better in 2024.

Now, prior to making his scheduled Thursday start against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, Peterson has registered a 3.47 ERA/4.56 FIP/1.425 WHIP through his first 11 starts of 2024. The 28-year-old southpaw said that the difference between how he feels on the mound this year versus last is nothing short of remarkable.

“It’s huge,” Peterson said. “It’s night and day, pitching without pain. I didn’t really know any better. Now it’s kind of what I had and, once I got the surgery, I could feel what it was supposed to feel like. It felt really good.

“I think that was the biggest thing was not necessarily the health aspect in the rehab, but getting used to more range of motion. Moving better and having basically everything up the chain clean up because of it.”

Another thing that has benefited Peterson this season he believes is the confidence he had in his return while he was still rehabbing from surgery in the offseason.

“For me, that was the biggest part of the rehab process,” Peterson explained.

“When I did get to the end of my rehab stint, I was feeling like I wasn’t wavering. I wasn’t guarding anything. I wanted to be full go and be at 100 percent and be able to trust it (the hip after surgery). And I would say even before I started, the rehab starts when I did some lives and bullpens, I really felt like I was able to trust the hip and I felt like the rehab had done its job and I was in a good spot. It was just about building out to get back and get everything back in shape to pitch here.”

A Return Home for Peterson in Colorado

Thursday’s start against the Rockies will carry a little extra weight with it for Peterson, who is a graduate of Regis Jesuit High School in nearby Aurora.

While this will be Peterson’s first time to pitch in Denver as a professional, he did throw at Coors Field while he was in high school. He also is one of several Major Leaguers who spent time on the Rockies scout team, described as, “Under the direction of the Colorado Rockies organization, their scouting department and Diamond Club Baseball, the Colorado Rockies Scout Team program has become one of the premier development and exposure experiences in the country” on the organization’s website.

“I think that every year I’ve missed it on one day or the other. It’s been one side of the series or the other so it’ll be fun to throw here,” said Peterson, who admitted to having an affinity to the Rockies growing up in the area. “Obviously I’ll have a lot of family and friends here to watch.”

One thing those family and friends will see on Thursday is a sinker that Peterson is throwing more this season than ever before (31.3 percent of the time, per Peterson’s page on Baseball Savant). That’s way up from the 25.3 percent usage from last season, and skyrocketed from the 11.5 percent in 2022.

Peterson is using his four-seam fastball 24.4 percent of the time this season, down from 27.2 in 2023 and a career-high 37.9 percent in 2022.

“It’s usually been the fastball predominantly for me but, I think, over the years, it’s gone up and down numbers wise. I’ve tried to just find the best balance with the sinker and four-seamer, whether that be matchups or whatever the circumstances are,” Peterson said.

“I’m just trying to find a good balance of where to use the sinker or where to use the four-seamer and then let the numbers shake out how they do as the game goes along.”

The trip to Colorado was also a chance for Peterson to reunite with fellow Denver-area native and now Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland. The two pitchers have stayed close, with Peterson even serving a role in Freeland’s wedding.

While the reunions have been plentiful this week, it’s still a business trip for him. The focus for Peterson while in Denver remains on what he needs to do on the mound to help the Mets win over the team with which he is very familiar.

“Whether you’re a pitcher or a hitter, it’s always an evolving puzzle,” Peterson said. “The puzzle never ends. Your mechanics, yourself, facing other guys, new guys coming into the league, every year is a new year. You have to stay on your stuff and continue to compete because everyone around you is doing the same thing.”