The Mets have been teetering back and forth whether top prospect David Peterson would make his Major League debut tonight against the Boston Red Sox. The Mets are a bit short handed in the rotation with the recent loss of Marcus Stroman’s calf injury. The three options the Mets have for tonight’s game are Peterson, right-hander Erasmo Ramirez, and the option of having a bullpen game. There is no better upside than letting the 24-year old hulking left hander make his Major League debut tonight.

The former first round pick of the Mets back in 2017, Peterson has been climbing up the ladder to the big league club over the last couple of seasons since being drafted from the University of Oregon. Peterson’s name being considered for tonight shouldn’t come as a surprise, as many in the organization expected the 6’6 left-hander to make his Major League debut at some point this season with the Mets.

The 24-year old Peterson is a no non-sense strike-throwing machine, as evident by him averaging only 2.5 walks-per-nine innings since debuting in the minors. According to MLB.com, Peterson’s fastball is average in terms of velocity, as he’ll sit at 89-91 mph and touch 93, but they did note that few starting pitchers in the Minor Leagues can sink and command it as well as he does. Speaking of sink, Peterson also loves to induce ground balls with his nasty sinker and he normally ranks among the Minor League Leaders in ground-ball rate. The 24-year old southpaw has also shown the ability to display swing and miss stuff as his strikeouts-per-nine innings rate had jumped from 8.1 to 9.5 across the past two seasons.

MLB.com had also noted on Peterson’s scouting report that he complements his nasty sinker with a plus slider that has good depth and bite, registering in the 82-84 mph range. He also has a fringy changeup registers around same velocity but in order for it to be more effective, it would benefit from more separation.

Mets fans are certainly excited to see the former first round pick make his Major League debut tonight. Peterson may be a huge part of the Mets pitching plans in 2021 with starting pitchers Marcus Stroman, Rick Porcello, and Michael Wacha all free agents after this season. Also don’t forget Noah Syndergaard will be coming off of Tommy John surgery next spring and will also be in a contract year.  If there ever was a time to see what you have in Peterson the time is now. There is also no question the Mets defense will have to play better behind Peterson considering the amount of ground balls he induces, which is something that has hampered the Mets over the previous seasons.

We all now wait with bated breath to see who the Luis Rojas hands the ball to tonight at Fenway Park.

Fun Fact: On March 3, 2017 Peterson had set an Oregon University school record with 17 strikeouts, breaking the previous record of 14 held by Tyler Anderson who is a pitcher with the San Francisco Giants. On April 29, 2017 he broke his own record after recording 20 strikeouts in a complete game shutout of Arizona State University.