Rays acquire left fielder David Peralta in trade with Diamondbacks

The Tampa Bay Rays acquired former Gold Glove- and Silver Slugger- winning left fielder David Peralta in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday. According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, the Diamondbacks will get catching prospect Christian Cerda in the deal.

Peralta, 34, began his baseball career as a pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals, but he never got out of the minor leagues and was released by the team in 2009. After a few years of playing outfielder in independent baseball leagues, Peralta signed with the Diamondbacks in 2013. A year later, he made his major league debut in 2014.

In nine years with the Diamondbacks and 961 career games, Peralta had a .283/.340/.463 slash line and .988 fielding percentage in Arizona's outfield. In 2018, he earned the Silver Slugger Award and he won a Gold Glove in 2019.

While Peralta was a stalwart in the Diamondbacks lineup, he's due to become a free agent after the 2022 season. With Arizona sitting at 45-54 and 22 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, getting a young player back for the veteran was a logical move.

Cerda, 19, is batting .315 through 20 games this season in the minors with two home runs and five steals. The Bronx-native lived in the Dominican Republic when he signed with the Rays as an international free agent at age 16.