Mets To Select Josh Walker

The Mets have optioned left-hander David Peterson, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. His active roster spot will go to fellow lefty Josh Walker, who was not previously on the 40-man roster, though the club already had a vacancy in that regard and won’t need to make a corresponding move.

This is the first time that Walker, 28, has been on a major league roster and he will be making his debut as soon as he’s put into a game. A 37th round selection of the Mets in the 2017 draft, he got some work in the lower levels of the minors in the 2017-2019 stretch before the minor league were canceled by the pandemic in 2020.

In 2021, he shot through three levels, going from High-A to Double-A and Triple-A. He tossed a combined 115 2/3 innings with a 3.73 ERA, striking out 21.5% of opponents against a 6.4% walk rate. Last year, he was limited by injury to just 13 1/3 innings over 13 appearances and has been working exclusively in relief here in 2023. He has tossed 13 1/3 innings over nine Triple-A outings with a miniscule 0.68 ERA, 34% strikeout rate, 11.3% walk rate and 32.1% ground ball rate. He’ll give the Mets a second left-handed relief option alongside Brooks Raley.

As for Peterson, he was called on to join the rotation as the Mets were dealing with injuries to Carlos Carrasco, José Quintana, Justin Verlander and the sticky stuff suspension of Max Scherzer. Unfortunately, he’s been lit up so far this year, currently sporting an 8.08 ERA through eight starts. There’s likely a bit of bad luck in there as Peterson actually has strong strikeout and walk rates of 24.7% and 7.7%, respectively. A .404 batting average on balls in play and 58.8% strand rate have helped some extra earned runs across the plate, but so have the eight homers Peterson’s allowed so far.

With Verlander and Scherzer both now back and Carrasco expected to rejoin the club in the near future, Peterson will head down to the farm and try to get things back on track for whenever the club needs reinforcements again.