{"id":123067,"date":"2026-05-29T23:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=123067"},"modified":"2026-05-29T23:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:03:17","slug":"mets-david-peterson-bullpen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/29\/mets-david-peterson-bullpen\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets to Send Peterson Back to Bullpen; Manaea to Take Over His Role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/peterda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Peterson<\/a>&#8216;s latest rough start, the New York Mets plan to move him back to the bullpen. In that outing on Tuesday, Peterson gave up six earned runs in five innings pitched, leading to a 7-2 loss at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds. So far this year, Peterson has been used in different scenarios. The Mets have used him as a starter and as a bulk pitcher behind openers in several outings this season. How Peterson takes on this demotion will be interesting to see. The Mets hope it can light a fire under him and he can bounce back, as this season has not been a fun one for him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBECI4Jxrh\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3600px; aspect-ratio: 3600\/2400;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h2>David Peterson Headed Back to Mets Bullpen<\/h2>\n<h2>Demoted After a Disastrous Start<\/h2>\n<p>Peterson has struggled mightily this season. After that abysmal outing against the Reds, he now has a 3-5 record on the year, with an ERA of 5.57. Compared to how solid he was last season in the first half of the year, even earning his first All-Star nod, it&#8217;s a sad downfall for a guy like Peterson, who the Mets have always been high on since he <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/07\/29\/mets-red-sox-07282020\/\" target=\"_self\">debuted in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Mets are moving David Peterson to the bullpen. He&#8217;ll be available in relief starting Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Sean Manaea will take over Peterson&#8217;s spot in the rotation\/bulk mix.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AnthonyDiComo\/status\/2060452289241137293?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 29, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Peterson has been a lot more <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/23\/mets-david-peterson-solid-may\/\" target=\"_self\">successful out of the bullpen<\/a> than as a starter. Out of the bullpen this season, he has a 2-0 record with a 2.25 ERA. In seven starts, he has an ERA of 7.56 and a 1-5 record. Mendoza did state that with this move being made, Peterson will still be used in a lot of different roles. With him moving back to the &#8216;pen, the team has decided to give his role to <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/manaese01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sean Manaea<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Manaea Takes Over Peterson&#8217;s Role, Mets Try to Shake Things Up<\/h2>\n<p>Manaea will now have the role of being used as a bulk pitcher and have occasional starts as the Mets please. He is another one who has not had the best start to the season. In 12 appearances this season, he is 0-1 with an ERA of 5.56. Manaea has yet to make a start for the team this season, as they decided earlier in the year to use him out of the bullpen. Manaea certainly hasn&#8217;t looked bad as of late and has had an uptick in his velo as well. He has an ERA of 3.75 in his last five appearances. While that is not that impressive, it is definitely a step in the right direction for Manaea.<\/p>\n<h2>Will This Plan Work for the Mets?<\/h2>\n<p>The Mets seem to be throwing anything at the wall and seeing if it sticks these days. It seems as if the team is on its last legs and is trying to see if anything can give it a boost to turn this season around. However, with them being 11 games under .500 and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/12\/david-stearns-mets-injuries-trade-deadline-2026\/\" target=\"_self\">uncompetitive<\/a> in the division and the Wild Card race, it is hard to see them really push for a playoff run come the deadline. It will be intriguing, though, to see if this change in the rotation does turn a page for Peterson and Manaea and miraculously even the team.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After David Peterson&#8216;s latest rough start, the New York Mets plan to move him back to the bullpen. In that outing on Tuesday, Peterson gave up six earned runs in five innings pitched, leading to a 7-2 loss at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds. So far this year, Peterson has been used in different [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5729,"featured_media":84051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,22,35],"tags":[1332,3075],"class_list":["post-123067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-mets","category-news","tag-david-peterson","tag-sean-manaea"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123067"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123101,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123067\/revisions\/123101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}