David Peterson is giving the innings, feeling the love

It’s not that I forget that David Peterson is in the Chicago Cubs’ rotation right now, but the combination of the extreme swirl of injuries (who is departing), the timelines for recoveries (who is returning), and hoped-for moves at the Trade Deadline (who is coming), have meant that my eyes have constantly been outside of the current rotation.

But so far, the early move to acquire Peterson from the Mets has proved to be a key decision for the front office. Not only did Peterson arrive at a time of desperate need in the rotation regardless of the results, but he’s also now given the Cubs a good outing three times out of the four he’s taken the mound.

The latest was his best, tossing 6.2 scoreless innings last night against the Tigers, allowing just three hits and a walk, while striking out four and posting a near-50% groundball rate. He got a loud ovation upon his departure, and he was feeling the love.

I particularly appreciated that, when staked with a huge early lead, Peterson just put his head down and threw strikes. He let his defense do some work, and he did what he could to go deep in the game to save the bullpen. Thanks to that, the Cubs needed only Aaron Civale to finish things off, and everyone else got a full day of rest.

“It’s been a good transition,” Peterson said of his time with the Cubs, per Cubs.com. “I was happy that the trade happened earlier,” Peterson said. “It was good to get in with a group and try to get as familiar as possible before the break, start working on everything and figuring out how the organization is run over here.”

With that additional time to work, familiarize, and get buy-in, David Peterson and the Cubs have definitely made some slight tweaks:

The Cubs will still have work to do at the deadline, and we’re certainly still going to hope that a fully-healthy Edward Cabrera comes back in August ready to make an impact. But it’s not as if Peterson hasn’t been a very good starting pitcher at times in his career, and the dream scenario is that, even after additions/returns, Peterson looks too good to take out of the rotation.