The lifeless Mets have a tough decision to make in their rotation

David Peterson struggles again and his rotation spot feels like it should be tenuous

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

• The Mets lost their sixth straight game on Monday night, falling to the Dodgers by the score of 4-0 in a lifeless defeat to start the series in LA (Box)

• LHP David Peterson started for the Mets and struggled yet again, allowing four earned runs in five innings, while surrendering five hits, four walks, and hitting a batter

• RHP Craig Kimbrel made his 2nd appearance for the Mets and tossed another zero

• New York had no answer whatsoever for young Dodgers lefty Justin Wrobleski, managing just two singles against him in eight innings

• Recently called up RHP Joey Gerber made his Mets debut and pitched well, going two scoreless innings and striking out five

• The Mets have now been shut out in three of their last four games and have not scored a run in their last 20 innings

---

Roster Moves 📰

• Selected OF Tommy Phan from Single-A St. Lucie

• Optioned IF Ronny Mauricio to Triple-A Syracuse

---

Injury Updates 🏥

• Juan Soto (calf strain) still has not started to run - he could receive a second MRI if his discomfort doesn’t improve

---

---

Play of the Game 😡

The biggest blow in this game was certainly an obvious one. After Marcus Semien struggled to get the ball out of his glove and couldn’t turn an inning-ending double play against Freddie Freeman in the 3rd inning, up stepped Andy Pages with two on and two out. The red-hot Pages immediately crushed a long three-run blast that essentially felt like the knockout blow, even though the game wasn’t even 1/3 of the way over.

---

The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️

On the latest edition of the Just Mets podcast, Andrew and Rich recapped the Mets uninspiring 1-5 homestand and discussed the clear issues facing this team as they head out to Los Angeles to start another west coast swing.

SUBSCRIBE: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

---

Down on the Farm 🌾

All Mets minor league affiliates were off on Monday

---

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (7-10) vs. Dodgers (12-4)

Where: Dodger Stadium — Los Angeles, CA

Starters: RHP Nolan McLean (1-1, 2.70 ERA) vs. LHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-1, 2.50 ERA)

When: 10:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

---

Is it time to swap out David Peterson for Sean Manaea? ✍️

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

All the talk right now, and rightfully so, is around the Mets lack of offense. They were shutout again on Monday in Los Angeles, and have scored just 13 runs in their last seven games. That is utterly incompetent and there’s no way around that.

But David Peterson put up another stinker on Monday against the Dodgers, which has been an evolving story over the season’s first three weeks as well.

He took the mound in LA on Monday night in desperate need of a good outing. After starting his 2026 campaign with 5.1 scoreless innings against Pittsburgh, the veteran lefty had given up nine earned runs in 10 cumulative innings across his next two starts, and through three rotation turns he looked emphatically like the staff’s weak link.

Monday’s outing against the Dodgers was bizarre in many ways, but at the end of the day the story was disappointingly all too similar.

In five innings, Peterson allowed four earned runs on five hits, while walking four, hitting a batter, and punching out seven.

His outing could not have gotten off to a worse start as he allowed the first four Dodgers to reach, but three consecutive strikeouts after a mound visit from Justin Willard allowed him to escape further trouble. He then tossed a perfect 2nd inning and looked to be setting in. Two walks in the 3rd helped bring baseball’s hottest hitter, Andy Pages, to the plate with two outs, and he promptly hammered a hanging breaking ball over the left field fence to essentially seal Peterson’s fate on this night. His ERA through four starts ballooned all the way up to 6.41, and it certainly feels like his rotation spot has to be in jeopardy.

The funny thing about Peterson is, he’s always been viewed as someone who has been a little lucky while pitching, with his fielders independent ERA (FIP) always higher than his actual ERA. In the early part of this season, those numbers are reversed, with his ERA being nearly twice as high as his FIP. He’s someone who allows a lot of balls in play - that’s just his game at this level. He isn’t a big velocity arm, and he therefore unquestionably relies on his defense. His defense has arguably let him down based on this metric, but it’s difficult to quantify over these last three starts specifically outside of so many Mets either out of position, playing new positions, or both, and there being a steep adjustment curve for all.

Even so, this was not the way 2026 was supposed to go for the southpaw. After setting new career highs in starts and innings a season ago, and heading into a contract year, this season was supposed to be the one that cemented Peterson’s status as a reliable rotation stalwart and earned himself a long-term payday.

In those last three starts, he’s given up A LOT of hits. 20 hits is way, way too much. But those eight walks burn just as much over his last 14.1 IP. Its not major league competitive unfortunately.

David Peterson’s lines so far in 2026

Instead, the Mets have a decision to make.

Coming out of spring training with six healthy starters, New York made the difficult decision to move Sean Manaea to the bullpen to begin the season. That move was noteworthy, considering the money owed to Manaea on a long-term contract. Demoting him into long relief because he was the weakest member of the six-starter group, proved the Mets are simply not afraid to make uncomfortable decisions if they are the best choice for the team.

Getty Images

Manaea, meanwhile, is coming off the best outing of his season, and has been excellent in the long relief role he was thrust into. In 10.2 innings, he’s pitched to a 2.25 ERA and held opponents to a .225 batting average. That’s still not to say that Manaea, with an 88-90 mph fastball, can be competent against a lineup more than one time through.

In the end, this is the third straight uncompetitive start Peterson has had.

But if not Manaea, then who? Christian Scott has struggled in the minors, so has Jonah Tong, so it’s not as if the Mets have a lot of alternatives to Peterson. If the Mets want to make a change, they may not have a choice to go to Manaea, even if its for a short outing.

David Stearns has consistently insisted that Manaea will still make plenty of starts for the Mets this season. Right now, would not be stunning if the first one of those came sooner rather than later. After Manaea pitched Sunday, he’s already out of commission until the middle of this week at a minimum. Swapping him and Peterson has to at least be a conversation piece the next day or two, and it should at least be on the table that he could start in Peterson’s place against the Cubs next weekend.

---

Around the League 🚩

• Pete Alonso hit his second home run as an Oriole to help Baltimore overcome a six run deficit and beat the Diamondbacks 9-7

• Brandon Lowe and Bryan Reynolds combined to drive in nine runs in the Pirates 16-5 drubbing of the Nationals

• Kyle Schwarber hit a pair of home runs in the Phillies 13-7 win over the Cubs

• Augustin Ramirez collected three hits and drove in four runs in Miami’s 10-4 road win in Atlanta