NEW YORK — David Peterson might not be the guy who saves the Cubs’ pitching staff.
But he’s the front office’s first notable crack at plugging a rotation-sized hole in the team’s roster.
The Cubs acquired the left-hander in a trade with the Mets on Thursday, and it won’t be long before he becomes the proverbial “next man up,” slated to start during the team’s series with the division-leading Brewers this weekend.
Team president Jed Hoyer estimated he’d been chatting with the Mets about Peterson for six weeks, with this week’s injuries to right-handers Edward Cabrera and Ben Brown upping the urgency for the Cubs to bring in a pitching reinforcement.
Peterson — an All Star last year who’s struggled this season, leaving the Mets with a 6.09 ERA — has the Cubs confident in a turnaround thanks to one of the highest ground-ball rates in baseball, at 51.1%. Pair that with the Cubs’ golden infield defense, and the conditions could be right for a resurrection.
“He’s been a really good pitcher in the big leagues. He throws strikes. He keeps the ball on the ground, which is something we haven’t done particularly well,” Hoyer said before Thursday’s series finale in Queens. “And with our defense, it felt like a pitcher where there was upside there.
“We do field ground balls really well, and he’s really good at that. Hopefully, we can help him that way.”
But even if everything goes swimmingly for Peterson, that’s only part of the solution to an enormous pitching problem on the North Side.
Cabrera and Brown are both expected to be down weeks, at least, joining righties Jameson Taillon and Cade Horton and lefty Justin Steele on the shelf.
“We kind of have a rotation on the IL right now,” Hoyer said. “Guys are going to have to step up. It was nice to get Peterson, but there’s going to be more challenges ahead. We have to be prepared with that, talking about small trades, waiver-wire [pick-ups], released players, just looking everywhere we can for reinforcements.
“We can certainly overcome it. I think we will overcome it. But we’re going to have to do some things differently than we imagined.”
A late-June trade isn’t exactly commonplace, as teams tend to wait until the trade deadline nears to start dealing. But the Cubs wanted Peterson and landed him, shipping 2024 second-rounder Cole Mathis to the Mets in return.
Wednesday, the team added righty Bryse Wilson on a waiver claim. After a 6.69 ERA with the White Sox last season, he could be asked to fill a variety of pitching roles for the pitching-desperate Cubs.
“He’s just a ‘I’ll do whatever I need to do, do whatever it takes’ type of competitor. And that’s kind of the situation that he’s walking into,” said Cubs skipper Craig Counsell, who managed Wilson with the Brewers. “He excels in situations like that. … He’s not going to be overwhelmed by anything.”
But will he keep the other team off the scoreboard?
As the Cubs try to accomplish that most basic of baseball objectives, their options are frighteningly slim. Hoyer pledged to stay in trade talks and stay busy on the waiver wire, but he also highlighted a reliance on internal solutions.
The Cubs were already doing that, with Brown posting the best pitching numbers on the team this season and righty Javier Assad an effective run-preventer at the moment. Colin Rea hasn’t been quite as dependable as he was a season ago, but any thoughts of moving him back to a bullpen role now that lefty Matthew Boyd is finally off the IL are gone now that the Cubs need his innings.
A peek into the minors doesn’t seem too promising, but the Cubs aren’t left with many other choices.
“We’ve had some conversations about guys in the minors we haven’t called up,” Hoyer said. “I don’t want to name names on guys that could end up being next, but certainly, my guess is we’re going to be forced to use close to a record number of pitchers by the end of the year.”
