10:54pm: Minor league first baseman Cole Mathis is going to New York in return, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic.
10:48pm: The Cubs are acquiring David Peterson from the Mets, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Chicago is dealing with a number of rotation injuries.
New York and Chicago are coincidentally amidst a four-game series at Citi Field. The Cubs have taken the first three games, including sweeping today’s doubleheader by scoring a combined 20 runs. A six-error showing in game two was among the lowest moments in a dreadful season for the Mets, who dropped 12 games under .500 for the first time since 2023.
The Mets probably aren’t quite ready for a complete fire sale, but it’s more difficult than ever to sell themselves on turning things around. Peterson was a logical option to be one of the first players to move. He’s an impending free agent who has pitched his way out of the New York rotation a couple times this season. Peterson returned to the starting five over the weekend but gave up five runs across four innings in a loss to Philadelphia.
That pushed Peterson’s earned run average up to 6.09 across 68 innings. The 30-year-old southpaw has a below-average 19.7% strikeout percentage against a 9.4% walk rate. He’s getting ground-balls at a strong 51% clip and has been plagued by an elevated .350 average on balls in play. Peterson’s underlying marks are a little more encouraging than the ERA would suggest, albeit still pointing to him as a fifth/sixth starter.
The Cubs aren’t in position to be too particular. They’re without Cade Horton for the entire season. Justin Steele might return late in the year, but he won’t have time to build up as a starter. Jameson Taillon is out beyond the All-Star Break with a hamstring strain. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said on Tuesday morning that the front office was exploring the trade market for depth arms.
Within 24 hours of Hoyer’s comments, they lost two more arms. Edward Cabrera strained his hamstring in a start against the Mets on Tuesday. Ben Brown, a reliever conversion who has been their best pitcher over the past six weeks, went on the shelf with a neck strain this morning. The Cubs will get Matthew Boyd back from a meniscus repair tomorrow, plugging one of those vacancies. That still left them with a four-man starting staff of Boyd, Shota Imanaga, Colin Rea and Javier Assad.
Peterson should be a better fifth starter than Jordan Wicks or out-of-options swingman Bryse Wilson, whom the Cubs claimed off waivers from Philadelphia this afternoon. At the very least, Peterson’s grounder-heavy approach should play better in front of a Chicago infield that leads MLB in Outs Above Average than it did in Queens. The Mets were 23rd in Outs Above Average entering play Wednesday, and they’ll probably drop further after tonight’s ugly showing.
We’re less than a year removed from Peterson taking the mound at Truist Park in the 2025 All-Star Game. He’d followed up a 2.91 ERA showing in 2024 with a 3.06 mark in the first half of last season. The Oregon product looked like an upper mid-rotation arm at the time, but he allowed a 6.34 ERA in 12 starts to close the season. Those struggles carried over, and Peterson has a 5.84 mark over 146 innings within the last calendar year.
Peterson is playing on an $8.1MM salary in his final arbitration season. Half of that has yet to be paid. Unless there are cash considerations changing hands, the Cubs will take on just over $4MM. They entered the day with an estimated $229MM cash payroll and $246MM luxury tax number, putting them just above the $244MM base threshold. They’ll pay a 20% tax on spending up to $264MM, so the Peterson acquisition costs them an extra $800K in taxes. It’ll drop New York’s cash payroll to roughly $360MM. They’re paying a 110% tax on overages, so they save roughly $4.45MM in taxes as well.
The Mets announced this morning that they were moving Kodai Senga to the bullpen. It’s unclear if that’ll remain the case now that they need to fill two rotation spots. Nolan McLean and Sean Manaea took the ball for today’s twin bill. Freddy Peralta, who seems increasingly likely to be traded closer to the August 3 deadline, will go against Boyd tomorrow.
The plans for a weekend series against the Phillies are wide open. Christian Scott will probably return from the injured list to start on Saturday. They’ll either need spot starters or bullpen games for the other two contests. Jonah Tong and Zach Thornton are depth options on the 40-man roster. Tobias Myers could work multiple innings to lead a bullpen game or tandem start.
More to come.
