The Mets Acquire Freddy Peralta From The Brewers

Sproat, on the other hand, is a major league-ready starting pitcher at 25 years old but was a comfortable tick behind New York’s pitching prospects, Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong, making him expendable. Sproat’s arsenal includes a fastball that needs improvement, a sinker, a changeup, a sweeper, and a slider. This is a guy who’s coming off an extremely topsy-turvy season in his 121 Triple-A innings, but he also did make his major league debut with four starts at the end of the 2025 season.

New York paid top dollar for a rental in the 29-year-old Peralta, who’s now going to be their ace, and has a nice one-two punch with him and McLean.

Myers is a solid pitcher who excelled in 2024 as a starting pitcher, took a step back in 2025, but rebounded as a reliever with great command.

Unfortunately for Brewers fans, trades like this have been the norm as they’ve gone through the Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams exchanges. Whenever a star-level player is about to enter free agency, Milwaukee cashes in on trading them, knowing that they won’t be able to re-sign them. Peralta had one year remaining on his contract for $8 million, so this should come as a surprise to absolutely no one.

How Big Of An Addition Is Peralta To The Mets?

Peralta is the exact ace-level pitcher that the Mets were looking for; he’s 30 years old and brings another leader to the pitching staff and locker room.

Peralta is coming off his third straight 200-strikeout season, had a 3.6 Fangraphs Wins Above Replacement, and also struck out 28.2% of batters.

Since 2023, Peralta is 19th in the league in ERA at 3.40, 15th in innings at 516, 23rd in fWAR at 8.9, and 11th in strikeout percentage at 28.9%, according to Fangraphs. This is one of the premier pitchers in all of Major League Baseball.

Peralta’s repertoire includes a four-seam fastball, changeup, curveball, and slider. It’s absurd that he has three pitches with over a 34.5% whiff rate on them, including his changeup coming in at 35.2%, curveball at 34.5%, and his slider at 53.4%.

This acquisition also takes a ton of pressure off Nolan McLean, who starred with a 2.06 ERA and 57 strikeouts across 48 second-half innings for the Mets last season, the definition of a godsend. McLean is entering his full rookie season and won’t be tasked with being the ace of the team. New York’s rotation now includes Peralta, McLean, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga, and Jonah Tong waiting in the wings, according to Roster Resource.

What Are The Concerns With This Peralta Trade?

As aforementioned, Peralta is a free agent after this season, so this can really be a one-year thing at the end of the day if they don’t re-sign him. Two top 100 prospects is a lot to give up for such future uncertainty, but that’s how much the Mets needed Peralta’s services. Prospects are lottery tickets at the end of the day, but who’s to say that Sproat becomes a number three-level starter and Williams becomes a productive every-day player?

A concern about Peralta is his command, which leads to him not going incredibly deep into games. So much so that he only pitched six innings in 20 of his 33 regular-season starts. Being healthy is the most important thing, obviously, but consistently going deep into games is also extremely important, especially for ace-level pitchers.

Look at the best pitchers in all of baseball, like Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes, Garrett Crochet, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto; some of them vary. Skubal pitched at least six innings in 23 of his 31 starts. Skenes only pitched at least six innings in 21 of his 32 starts. Crochet pitched at least six innings in 25 of his 32 starts. Yamamoto also only pitched at least six innings in 18 of his 30 starts.

Peralta’s is, without a doubt, a step below these guys, especially in the stuff and walk department. Where he also takes a backseat is in the number of barrels that he gives up. Peralta is nicknamed “Fastball Freddy” and he gave up 26 extra-base hits on it in 1,651 four-seam pitches, according to Baseball Savant.

The End Of My Freddy Peralta Rant

Peralta gives New York a much-needed front-of-the-line starting pitcher, especially with their uncertainty in the back end. This was another huge gamble by the Mets right after they traded for Luis Robert Jr, who’s struggled mightily offensively since his great 2023 campaign with the Chicago White Sox.

Peralta’s been consistently good for a couple of seasons now and will be even more motivated in New York and in the midst of a contract season as well.

In typical Brewers fashion, this trade might very well work out for them if their pitching lab can further unlock Sproat and they can untap Williams’ .718 OPS in 34 Triple-A games this past season.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why you have to learn to be patient. Fans were ripping New York’s President of Baseball Operations, David Stearns, to shreds for letting players walk and seemingly doing nothing. Since then, they’ve gotten Jorge Polanco, Robert Jr, and now Peralta, not bad at all.

The next decision for the Mets is if they’re still looking to improve their bullpen that lost Edwin Diaz to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but more importantly, will they be re-signing Peralta or not?