Mets reliever Tim Peterson is one of the few positive 2018 stories

The 2018 New York Mets have been a mess. Through the muck, 27-year-old rookie Tim Peterson has emerged as a possible dependable bullpen arm.

There haven’t been too many positive 2018 New York Mets stories. One of the few good ones involves the performance of rookie reliever Tim Peterson.

The 27-year-old righty made his big league debut at the end of May without much fanfare outside of the Peterson clan. During his time with the big league club, Peterson has been one of the few arms Mickey Callaway can count on.

Through his first six appearances, Peterson has given the Mets 9.2 innings and an ERA of 1.86. He is striking out batters at a rate of 10.2 per nine and walking them just slightly less than two per nine.

It has been a long road to the major leagues for Peterson. Originally drafted in the 20th round back in 2012, nearly his entire career had been spent as a relief pitcher in the minor leagues. The label as a career-minor leaguer went away out of necessity when the Mets needed some relief help and he had the numbers worthy of a promotion.

I don’t believe Peterson is the kind of late-bloomer who will put together a string of All-Star campaigns. What he can do is fill a niche in the Mets bullpen.

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There’s certainly space available. Not many of their other relievers have done enough to convince me or anyone else they’re worth keeping for the long-haul.

Depending on how you look at it, Peterson either developed into a big leaguer at the right or wrong time. It’s the right time because there are opportunities for him to pitch regularly. The timing isn’t right because those quality innings he delivers probably won’t have much meaning.

Recently, we also saw Drew Smith make his MLB debut for the Mets. He has looked good thus far. However, two innings barely qualify as a sample-size.

Smith is a bit different from Peterson. He’s a 24-year-old with far more promise. Whichever way you want to look at these two, we can at least hold out some hope that they earn plenty of late-inning outs.

The year started off so well for the Mets’ bullpen. Seth Lugo has since moved to the rotation where he hasn’t had as much luck. Robert Gsellman‘s ERA is also up to 4.20 following some bad outings.

Next: Is Dominic Smith setup to fail?

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For a team built on pitching, it’s unfortunate that they employ so many guys having bad years. Peterson is one of the few off to a fine start. Hopefully, it’s more than smoke and mirrors.