THE KID IS ALL RIGHT

Peterson has earned a shot to be part of Mets’ 2021 rotation

David Peterson, who’s been regularly relaxed and level-headed with reporters in his rookie season, only cracked a smile once during what was likely his final press conference of the year. The smile — a wholehearted chuckle, really — came after a question about his wins surpassing that of his teammate, a back-to-back Cy Young winner vying, and not yet out, for his third award.

Asked Ed Coleman, broadcaster for WFAN: “Have you thought about the fact that someday you can tell your kids that you were the winningest pitcher on a team that included Jacob deGrom?”

Peterson broke his poker face, but just for a few seconds, with a laugh and quietly allowed himself to revel in the moment before he responded to Coleman’s question with another class answer.

“I want to come every day and work as hard as I can and help this team win as many games as we can,” he said.

Peterson accumulated six wins to deGrom’s four (the Mets ace has one more start left, presuming the team falk short in its long-shot playoff chance). The southpaw’s six victories are tied for secondbest in the National League.

Of the eight other starters the Mets used this year, none even came close to that number. Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha earned one win each, and Steven Matz put up a goose egg in that category. While some in the industry are eager to throw wins — as a statistic to evaluate pitchers — into the dustbin of the game’s history, in this space Peterson’s six wins in 10 games (nine starts) simply meant he consistently gave the Mets the best chance to take and hold a lead.

“I think he’s proven a lot,” manager Luis Rojas, who routinely praised Peterson’s poise, said. “He’s shown that he was ready, that he can compete in the major-league level with the stuff that he has.”

The 25-year-old credited his 2020 success, altogether a season that should help him remain in the Mets’ prospective rotation, to an assortment of factors; chief among them the belief in himself that he was a bigleaguer despite his jump from Double-A to the majors. He called out other contributions to his 3.44 ERA, the team’s secondbest starter earned run average behind deGrom, like help from his rotation-mates and catchers.

“I wanted to prove to myself and everyone else that I belong up here,” Peterson said.

So, how did he do it? Numbers and results aside, how did Peterson prove there’s room for the lefthander on the Mets rotation now, and in the team’s future?

“I think if you don’t have confidence in yourself, you don’t really belong,” Peterson said. “You gotta have that confidence to have success and be able to go out there and face the best hitters in the world. I mean, guys are up in the big leagues for a reason. To go out there with confidence and know that your stuff plays is a huge benefit.”

Peterson had to gain some confidence back after he landed on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation last month. He was forced to miss a couple of starts due to the injury, and he was also demoted to the bullpen as the Mets tried to creatively solve their myriad pitching problems. Peterson returned to the rotation and gave up five runs in two innings to the Phillies. Then he took his second loss against Toronto, though he pitched well through five.

But he bounced back to end the year with back-to-back quality starts and hurled 14 strikeouts combined in that span. All told, opponents hit .202 in 49.2 innings against Peterson.

Rojas didn’t want to imagine how much more burdensome it would have been to construct a rotation without Peterson in it. The skipper knows the newcomer alleviated at least some of the starting pitching challenges that were dumped this season, beginning with Noah Syndergaard’s Tommy John surgery and Marcus Stroman’s opt-out and ending with Matz’s and Wacha’s mediocre seasons. The Mets used more starting pitchers in fewer than 60 games than they did all last season in the full 162.

“It would’ve been tough not to have a guy like that,” Rojas said. “And the consistency that he’s shown — he had the IL stint and he had to ramp up his pitch count — but he did everything we asked. And look, it goes to his last start of the season. He throws 107 pitches and seven complete innings.

“That was a solid start, and it shows who this kid can be for us.”

Peterson could not have asked for much more in his introduction to the big leagues. He learned from the best in deGrom, faced some adversity in the form of an injury and a bad outing, and he bounced back from it all to end the sprint on his longest start of the year. He experienced a taste of his aspirations in the shortened 60-game season. Perhaps next year he can smile and revel in the moments a bit longer, knowing the majorleaguer already proved he belongs.

Now, he’s here to stay.