Orioles 'Best Fits' In Trade For Brewers $15 Million Ace

There's no reason for the Milwaukee Brewers to trade their top starting pitcher right now.

Freddy Peralta has been that guy this season for the Brewers. He has started a league-best 17 games and has a 2.90 ERA and 98-to-34 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 93 innings pitched. Peralta has been an All-Star and should be once again this year.

The righty is great and is under team control next year as well. Peralta signed a five-year, $15.5 million deal with the team with a club option of $8 million for 2026. As the trade deadline has started to get closer, speculation has popped up about him. With another year of control, Peralta would bring back a significant package and Milwaukee's rotation is deep anyway. The Brewers have followed a trend like this before where they have traded a star a year away from free agency.

But, the Brewers look like contenders in the National League. There's no reason for the club to ship him out of town when they look as good as they have.

ESPN's Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel put the chances of a deal at 20 percent and one of the teams they floated for him was the Baltimore Orioles.

"No. 4. Freddy Peralta, Milwaukee Brewers," Passan and McDaniel said. "Chance of trade: 20 percent. Peralta has been a steady presence for years, averaging 140 innings pitched with a 3.49 ERA over the past four seasons. He's on track to do that again, with his heavily used fastball coming in at a career-high average velo of 94.9 mph this season. He has an ultra-cheap $8 million option for 2026. Best fits: (Boston Red Sox), (Houston Astros), (Toronto Blue Jays), (St. Louis Cardinals), (Arizona Diamondbacks), (San Diego Padres), Baltimore."

This would be a big shock. Baltimore needs pitching, but entered play Thursday with a 34-46 record. If the Brewers -- who entered play on Thursday with a 45-36 record -- traded a star like Peralta to a team struggling like that, it would be a bad look.