David Peterson has already done enough in Chicago to make the Cubs think twice about letting him walk.
The left-hander arrived as a quieter midseason fix, the kind of move that barely makes a ripple at the time. Since Jed Hoyer brought him in to help steady an ailing rotation, Peterson has become one of the more useful arms on the staff. In 55 1/3 innings with the Cubs, he has posted a 3.90 ERA and 4.31 FIP - solid enough on the surface, and even better when you dig into how often he has actually been hit hard.
Of his 11 starts in Chicago, only one has truly gone off the rails: the 10-run disaster against the Cardinals. Outside of that outing, Peterson has allowed more than two earned runs only twice. That doesn’t make him an ace, and it doesn’t pretend otherwise, but it does show how much he has benefited from the Cubs’ defense and a change of scenery.
The fit is obvious. Peterson’s 48.1% ground-ball rate in a Cubs uniform may not match Clay Holmes’ level of suppression, but it works in the same general lane.
Chicago has leaned into a defense-first identity, and Peterson’s game fits that blueprint. The concern, naturally, is that his underlying numbers have not been especially pretty all year, and his career has swung between stretches of mid-to-low threes and high-fives in ERA.
Even so, his FIP over the past five seasons has never been truly ugly, topping out at 4.34 in 2023.
That matters because the Cubs are staring at a rotation reset. Holmes, Kevin Gausman, Matthew Boyd, and Shota Imanaga are all heading toward free agency, while the rest of the group comes with its own issues. Justin Steele’s recovery has been delayed, Ben Brown has dealt with a recurring neck ailment, and Edward Cabrera still hasn’t inspired much confidence since his trade over.
Chicago also needs more than just one dependable starter. The Cubs were behind only the Athletics in home runs per nine innings this year, so they need strikeout stuff at the top of the rotation and a reliable stopper every five days. But they also need value, because pitching is expensive and the front office has a lot of work to do.
That’s where Peterson starts to look especially appealing. Back in April, Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter projected a $39 million deal for him on the open market, though that number probably looks rich now after his rough start with the Mets, even with the rebound in Chicago. If the Cubs want to bring him back, they may be able to get him at a discount, whether on a one-year deal to rebuild value or on a longer contract.
That kind of move would give Hoyer more room to chase bigger arms later. And for Peterson, staying with the team that helped revive his season might make plenty of sense too.
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Chicago has plenty of reasons to keep paying attention to Zeferjahn. The Cubs are leaning on him to grow into a real option out of the bullpen as other relievers continue to work through their own issues, and his recent outings suggest there may be a path there. The question now is whether the improvement holds once the leverage rises and the margin for error gets thinner. [Read more 🡒]