Reviewing Baseball America’s 2019 Top 30 Mets Prospects: #6 David Peterson

This is the second year where we are walking through the previous season’s Baseball America’s Top Prospect handbook, looking at the all the Mets to see how they are developing against Baseball America’s Projections.

This website should really be named 213 Miles From David Peterson. Last week we wrote up a Non-Roster Invite preview for him, in a few weeks we have an article projecting his 2020 stats and he was featured in a 2018 NRI review article a couple of years ago. It’s not that we are major fans of David Peterson (although we do like him) he just happens to be involved in every article series going on in the website right now.

Let’s focus on what BA said about him before the 2019 season and then see if that came true. Peterson was a first round pick for the Mets in 2017 and then featured speed bumps from an ingrown toenail and knee issues. BA was impressed by his “contact management”, allowing only 2 homers in 22 starts and a ground ball rate of 65%, which was 3rd in the minors that year. He has a low, low 90s fastball and a low, low 80’s slider. He’s a tall lefty who throws out of the 3/4 arm slot, all of which is nice. BA see’s his ceiling as a #4 starter, which is good because the Mets need that.

So how did he do since this book was published?

2019 Binghamton: 116.0 IP, 4.19 ERA, 1.345 WHIP, 9.5 K/9
2019 Arizona Fall League: 13.0 IP, 3.46 ERA, 2.000 WHIP, 9.0 K/9

David Peterson did well last year. Later this month when we get to his projection article, some projections are actually quite hyped on his ability to contribute this year. We aren’t there yet. Since the Mets traded Justin Dunn, Anthony Kay among others last year, Peterson is now the most ready Mets starter to be added to the 40-man roster. If something happens to two starters this season, Peterson probably is a more attractive option to try in the rotation than the long-men the Mets currently have on their roster. Coupled with BA saying that his ceiling is a 4th starter, that’s fine. The options the Mets have are 5th or worse.

So we are hoping for David Peterson’s continued success this year, and we’ll probably see all you Peterson fans again in a couple of weeks when we look at his projections.