Rangers watch a rotation stabilizer fly off the board in late-night Mets-Cubs trade

The New York Mets and Chicago Cubs linked up for a trade last night, and it's worth wondering in the aftermath if Chris Young was asleep at the wheel. The Texas Rangers wrapped up their day early yesterday thanks to the 11:10 AM start time, and perhaps that's why Young missed a shot at a trade for a veteran starter who could have stabilized the rotation in Jack Leiter's absence.

The Mets sent lefty starter David Peterson to the Cubs in exchange for Chicago's No. 13 prospect Cole Mathis, a 22-year-old who was the team's second-round pick back in 2024. Peterson has a 4.31 career ERA, but has struggled with a 6.06 ERA through 16 games (eight starts) and 68 innings pitched.

The Cubs made the play for Peterson, who has been part of a Mets club that has dramatically underachieved because they've been ravaged by injury. Texas's rotation hasn't taken that critical of a hit, but the pitching carousel has already been spinning as the club cycles through uninspiring options to fill Leiter's shoes.

There's reason to believe that Peterson has been better than his results indicate, and he would have been a cheap option to plug in and prevent the hole in the rotation from derailing the Rangers' playoff hopes.

The Rangers may pay dearly by waiting to address the starting rotation

The Rangers are sitting at 38-42, as getting over the .500 threshold seems as futile as Sisyphus rolling the boudler up the mountain. Per, Right on Rangers on Twitter/X, the threshold to make the playoffs in the American League over the past five years has been 86 wins, meaning the Rangers must go 48-34 from here on out to meet that mark.

That doesn't leave much margin for error, and Jose Corniell (6.08 ERA in Round Rock), Winston Santos (7.44 ERA in Frisco), and David Davalillo (7.59 ERA in Round Rock) all don't seem ready to step into the big league rotation, though for now, they'll be called upon.

The hope might be that Jordan Montgomery can be a savior once he returns from his recently started rehab assignment. If not, the Rangers might have to buy a starter at the trade deadline, when they'll face much fiercer competition to land one of the available arms.

And that brings us back to Peterson. The 30-year-old's peripherals don't match his results. He owns a 3.85 FIP, 4.05 xFIP, and a 4.14 SIERA. The latter two metrics are reliable predictors of future performance, and all three metrics are in line with his career averages.

Additionally, Peterson is a heavy groundball pitcher, with a 51.1% grounder rate this season and a 51.4% clip for his career. New York's defense has been bad, with a collective -8 outs above average, while the Rangers might've been able to help him out more with 12 OAA, ranking seventh in the majors.

The southpaw is a free-agent-to-be and owed just about $4 million for the rest of the season, making him an affordable option that would've fit nicely given the constraints Ray Davis has placed on payroll. It took only a mid-level prospect to get him.

The Rangers decided not to get involved, and if the plan truly is to wait it out and piece things together with minor league arms until Montgomery comes back, they could be in trouble. Losing too much ground waiting for the recovering lefty could be a death knell for Texas's playoff hopes. On top of that, Montgomery's 6.23 pre-injury ERA (and uninspiring peripherals) in Arizona shouldn't inspire too much confidence.

This is a critical stretch for the Rangers, and apparently, an arm that could've helped them was available. Now we'll see if they regret not taking action.

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