Cubs Officially Announce David Peterson Trade, DFA Yosver Zulueta
News broke late last night or early this morning about the Cubs’ acquisition of lefty David Peterson from the Mets, and the club has now officially announced the deal. The 30-year-old has spent his entire professional career with the Mets, who selected him out of Oregon with the 20th overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft. Peterson’s ERA sits at an unsightly 6.09 through 16 total appearances (eight starts), but there’s reason to believe it’ll get better with the Cubs.
His 3.85 FIP indicates that his defense has been doing him dirty, and last night’s game showed pretty clearly how that might be the case. As a sinker-baller who gets lots of grounders, Peterson will benefit from pitching in front of the best defense in baseball. Getting away from a last-place organization that can’t extract its head from its backside may help as well.
Peterson’s last start came on June 21, and he is expected to take the bump for the Cubs this weekend in Milwaukee. See the media release below for more on this move.
The Chicago Cubs today acquired left-handed pitcher David Peterson from the New York Mets for minor-league infielder Cole Mathis. In a corresponding move, right-handed pitcher Yosver Zulueta has been designated for assignment. The 40-man roster stands at 40 players.
Peterson, 30, is 3-6 with one save, a 6.09 ERA (46 ER/68.0 IP), 63 strikeouts, compared to 30 walks in 16 games, including eight starts, with the Mets this season. He has thrown at least 3.0 innings in each of his appearances, surrendering two-or-fewer earned runs in eight outings and holding the opponent scoreless in four of them. He has registered a 3.87 FIP and a 52.9% ground ball rate, both of which are better than the league average. Peterson earned his first career save on May 31 against Miami, a 4.0 inning effort in which he allowed no runs with one hit, one walk and three strikeouts.
The left-hander is 40-36 with one save, a 4.31 ERA (331 ER/690.2 IP), 677 strikeouts and 292 walks in 147 career major league games (123 starts) across seven seasons with the Mets. In 2025, Peterson registered career-bests in innings (168.2), strikeouts (150), appearances (30, all starts) and fielding-independent pitching (3.48), recorded a shutout for his second career complete game and was named to the National League All-Star team. He made his MLB debut on July 28, 2020, against Boston, throwing 5.2 innings with two earned runs, seven hits, three strikeouts and two walks, and earned his first career win. He earned Baseball America Major League All-Rookie Team honors following the 2020 season.
The six-foot six-inch native of Arcadia, Calif., was selected by the Mets in the first round (20th overall) of the 2017 draft out of University of Oregon. He was named a Southern Atlantic League Mid-Season All-Star and a MiLB.com Organization All-Star in 2018.
