{"id":895328,"date":"2026-06-27T00:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/895328\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T00:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:54:17","slug":"david-peterson-lefty-will-make-his-chicago-cubs-debut-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/895328\/","title":{"rendered":"David Peterson: Lefty will make his Chicago Cubs debut Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE \u2014 David Peterson was on his way home from Citi Field after Wednesday\u2019s doubleheader<\/a> between the Chicago Cubs and the New York Mets when he saw he had an incoming phone call from Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns.<\/p>\n

In a matter of minutes, everything changed for Peterson.<\/p>\n

The left-handed starting pitcher had been traded to the Cubs<\/a> in a deal that sent infield prospect Cole Mathis to the Mets.<\/p>\n

After 10 years with the Mets organization, the news came as a shock to Peterson, 30. He did not, however, make the short walk to the visitors dugout ahead of Thursday\u2019s series finale at Citi Field. Cubs manager Craig Counsell gave Peterson the day off to get things in order ahead of his move to Chicago. Peterson then flew to Milwaukee with the team Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of packing,\u201d Peterson said of his Thursday. \u201cA lot of: This is going to Chicago, this is going home. But yeah, I think it was just getting some of the off-field stuff at home with my family taken care of and situated before we left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson will make his first start with the Cubs on Saturday against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The teams opened the three-game series Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew team, new uniform,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cI\u2019ll have a little bit (of nerves). But at the same time I\u2019ve pitched plenty in this ballpark and I\u2019m ready to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a Cubs rotation that is reeling from several injuries<\/a>, Peterson\u2019s addition comes just in time for a crucial series against the NL Central-leading Brewers. Starters Edward Cabrera and Ben Brown went on the injured list Wednesday. And Wednesday\u2019s doubleheader \u2014 thanks to a Monday rainout that perplexed Counsell<\/a> \u2014 certainly didn\u2019t help the pitching staff.<\/p>\n

After a somewhat wild week, Counsell is taking it day by day with his depleted rotation. He announced that Peterson will start Saturday, but the Cubs won\u2019t determine Sunday\u2019s starter until after Saturday night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Peterson struggled this season with the Mets, but he was an All-Star a year ago. The Cubs believe the ground-ball pitcher will benefit greatly from a Cubs infield that is a major upgrade.<\/p>\n

\"MetsMets starter David Peterson delivers against the Phillies on June 21, 2026, in Philadelphia. (Chris Szagola\/AP)<\/p>\n

On top of that, Counsell believes a change of scenery will be good for the lefty.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot many guys spend 10 years with an organization,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of a nod to how successful David has been. When things aren\u2019t going well, sometimes just a fresh start is something that can reenergize you, refocus you, hopefully get you to a good place, and hopefully we can provide that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson, the 20th pick in the 2017 draft, made 123 starts since making his MLB debut in 2020. His ERA ballooned to a career-worst 6.09 in 16 appearances this year with the last-place Mets \u2014 who on Friday fired manager Carlos Mendoza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s where Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner and the rest of the Cubs infield come into play. Peterson said he\u2019s familiar with the Cubs after facing them seven times this season. That infield plays to his strengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s huge,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cYou look at the guys around the infield and the defense as a whole, it\u2019s hard not to be excited about that group. You see them statistically at the top of every list. So I\u2019m excited to have those guys behind me on the field and to play with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before this season, Peterson had a career 4.12 ERA and logged more than 100 innings in each of the last four seasons. He believes his 2026 struggles are an outlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went through some things early in the year that we needed to clean up and felt a lot better about where we\u2019re at now,\u201d Peterson said. \u201c(I) feel like myself back in \u201924, \u201925. I\u2019m excited for the opportunity to start (Saturday) and get the routine back to some consistency. I feel good with where I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injury update<\/p>\n

The Cubs placed right-handed reliever Phil Maton on the injured list with right knee tendinitis. Maton has been managing knee pain for much of the season and spent time on the IL in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the first time we gave him some time off, I think we made some progress,\u201d Counsell said.
\u201cBut we\u2019re kind of getting back into the same territory again and we really need Phil to get going here. I think we\u2019re getting closer, but we\u2019re also taking some steps back with the health. So if we can maybe use this time and possibly the All-Star break to get his health as good as we can get it for the second half, I think that\u2019s important, because we need a good version of Phil Maton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maton has a 6.08 ERA in 30 appearances this season. He gave up a game-tying home run in 1 1\/3 innings in Thursday\u2019s 10-inning win over the Mets<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 David Peterson was on his way home from Citi Field after Wednesday\u2019s doubleheader between the Chicago…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":895329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,1271,1816,362802,362801,5386,1818,4247,1266,1305,32164],"class_list":["post-895328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-craig-counsell","tag-cubs-mets-trade","tag-cubs-trade","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-starting-pitcher"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116819347585292377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}