The Cubs and Mets reportedly agreed to a trade on Wednesday night. The beginner David Peterson he goes to Chicago to find first base Cole Mathis. The Cubs will need to clear a 40-man roster spot once the deal is done.
New York and Chicago meet in the middle of a four-game series at Citi Field. The Cubs took the first three games, including sweeping tonight’s doubleheader by scoring a combined 20 runs. The six showing errors in the second game were among the lowest in a terrible season for the Mets, who dropped 12 games under .500 for the first time since 2023.
The Mets probably aren’t ready for a full fire sale, but it’s harder than ever to convince themselves they’ll turn things around. Peterson was the logical way to be one of the first players to make the move. He’s a free agent that helps get off the ground a few times this season. Peterson returned to his starting five over the weekend but gave up five runs in four innings in the loss to Philadelphia.
That lowered his earned run average to 6.09 in 68 innings. The 30-year-old southpaw has a below-average 19.7% strikeout percentage compared to a 9.4% walk rate. He’s getting ground balls at a solid 51% clip and is hitting with a career high .350 average on balls in play. Peterson’s grades are a little more encouraging than his ERA would suggest, though he still points to a fifth/sixth starter.
The Cubs are in no position to be very special. They don’t have it Late Horton the whole season. Justin Steele he may return later in the year, but he won’t have time to build as a starter. Jameson Taillon sat out the All-Star Break with a hamstring. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said Tuesday morning that the front office is exploring the trade market for deep arms.
Within 24 hours of Hoyer’s comments, they lost two more starters. Edward Cabrera strained a hamstring during Tuesday’s game against the Mets. Ben Brownreliever conversion who has been their best pitcher for the past six weeks, went to the shelf with a neck strain this morning. The Cubs will find out Matthew Boyd coming back from meniscus repair tomorrow, plugging one of those gaps. That still leaves four new Boyd employees, Shota Imanaga, Colin Rea again Javier Assad.
Peterson should be a better fifth starter than that Jordan Wicks or a swingman out of options Bryse WilsonThe Cubs claimed no waivers in Philadelphia this afternoon. At the very least, the bottom-heavy approach should play better in front of a Chicago outfield that leads MLB in Outs Above Average. The Mets were 23rd in that metric entering Wednesday, and will likely drop significantly after tonight’s game.
We’re less than a year removed from Peterson taking the mound at Truist Park in the 2025 All-Star Game. He followed up a 2.91 ERA in 2024 with a 3.06 ERA in the first half of last season. The Oregon product looked like an average rotation arm at the time, but he allowed a 6.34 ERA in 12 starts to close out the season. Those struggles have continued, and Peterson has a 5.84 ERA over 146 innings over the past calendar year.
Peterson is making an $8.1MM salary in his final season of arbitration. Part of that has yet to be paid. Unless there are considerations for money changing hands, the Cubs will take just over $4MM. They entered the day with an estimated $229MM and a luxury tax number of $246MM, putting them just over the $244MM base limit. They will pay a 20% tax on spending up to $264MM, so the Peterson acquisition cost them an additional $800K in taxes. It will reduce New York’s cash payout to about $360MM. They pay 110% tax on the excess, so they save about $4.45MM in taxes as well.
The Mets announced this morning that they are leaving Kodai Senga in the barn. It’s unclear if that will remain the case now that they need to fill two rotation spots. Nolan McLean again Sean Manaea took the ball on today’s twin bill. Freddy Peraltawho appears likely to be traded near the August 3 deadline, will face Boyd tomorrow.
The plans for the weekend series against the Phillies are wide open. Christian Scott will likely be back on the injured list starting Saturday. They will need local starters or bullpen games for the other two contests. Jonah Tong again Zach Thornton are depth options on the 40-man roster. Tobias Myers can work multiple innings to lead a bullpen game or tandem start.
Mathis, who turns 23 next month, was Chicago’s second-round pick in the 2024 draft. A two-way player at the College of Charleston, he became a full-time player in pro ball after undergoing Tommy John surgery after the draft. Mathis missed a good chunk of the ’25 season and went back on the injured list with an undisclosed issue this week.
As far as health concerns go, Mathis has posted league-leading numbers. That’s to be expected of a college student dealing with low-level arms. Mathis rode a patient path to a .248/.371/.508 batting line in 310 professional plate appearances, all in A-ball. Baseball America ranked him ninth in Chicago’s farm system, while he was 13th in MLB Pipeline. Eric Longenhagen and James Fegan of FanGraphs were a little lower, ranking him 33rd in the organization in their draft last month.
Evaluators generally praise Mathis for his good hitting skills and strong but unusual strength. FanGraphs has raised questions about the inactivity in his approach, which has led to deeper counts and slightly higher strikeout rates. The Baseball America draft calls him a potential second baseman based on his hitting/power combination. He has at least a few years left but will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft after the 2027 season.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the Cubs were acquiring Peterson. Will Samson of The Athletic was first on Mathis as a returner. Photo courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images.
