Top Landing Spots for Free Agent Freddy Peralta

Chicago White Sox

After losing 100 games in each year from 2023 to 2025, the White Sox did a 180 and not only made the playoffs but were close to making this year’s ALCS. The White Sox now look to capitalize on their success, and prove this season was not a one-hit wonder. 

The White Sox have a promising core of arms in their rotation, Sean Burke, Davis Martin, Hagen Smith, Drew Thorpe and Noah Schultz. All of those arms have some sort of intrigue and upside to be a SP3 at minimum. But all of these arms also have the opportunity to bottom out.

The White Sox finished last in innings pitched by starting pitchers in 2026; they did not have that guy that has been there done that, for a full season. That is where Peralta comes in.

Adding someone with Peralta’s pedigree would give the rotation someone they can rely on every fifth day to give them a quality outing. Chris Getz has said they are targeting starting pitching in 2027, and while they spent under 100 million last year, payroll has historically been up in the $180-190 million range when the team is good.

Chicago Cubs

Now going to the northside of Chicago, we have the Cubs. The Cubs again make the playoffs but bottom out in the wild-card round showing no true fight.

The Cubs now have a crucial offseason, where not one, but many holes need to be filled in the lineup, rotation, and bullpen with departures of key players such as Matthew Boyd, Clay Holmes, Seiya Suzuki, and Ian Happ.

Adding Peralta would be a great start to a successful offseason. 

In the recent runs of poor postseason form, the Cubs have always lacked a pitcher that you feel 100 percent confident in. While Peralta is no world-beater, the starts he made in this October showed he can perform at a high level, which is something the Cubs have been longing for. 

This is also another rotation where you really do not feel great about anyone. Edward Cabrera struggled with injuries, and when he did pitch, it didn’t go well. Justin Steele looks like their SP2 right now, and while he can perform to that level, when was the last time we have seen him for even half a season?

This rotation desperately needs someone like Peralta, probably the most out of all of the teams we’ll talk about here. While I do get worried the Cubs will try and sign a buy-low guy like a Casey Mize or a Kris Bubic, I don’t think they can afford to bank on arms like that again. 

Arizona Diamondbacks

The D-backs are coming off a year where it came down to the last day of the regular season, but again coming up short of making the playoffs. This team has not made the playoffs since their World Series run back in 2023. The D-backs now again are asking themselves, how can we get over the hump to make it back to October?

One thing the D-backs struggled with in 2026 is strikeouts. They finished bottom two in strikeouts as a staff this year, and Peralta can offer a boost in that department to any staff.

The D-backs struggled last year with finding consistent starting pitching arms. Now with Michael Soroka and Zac Gallen out the door, the questions grow even larger. Obviously, the hope is that Corbin Burnes regains some type of form, and Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt build off last year. It feels unrealistic for the team to hold their breaths on all three of those things happening together.

If reliability and strikeouts are important to the D-backs, Peralta feels like an obvious fit.

San Francisco Giants

The Giants had a disastrous season, finishing 65-97, a whopping 35 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants and Buster Posey now are looking to flip the switch this offseason and land pieces that will turn this team’s fortune around.

The reason I believe the Giants will attack pitching over hitting is simply because they have too much money locked up on the offensive side. Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, and Matt Chapman are the most notable names, but there’s also Harrison Bader and Jung Hoo-Lee to take into consideration.

Honestly, they have more to dream on as well with Marcelo Mayer and Bryce Eldridge, but the pitching staff is a different story.

The Giants’ pitching staff ranked bottom ten in team ERA and team strikeouts. Logan Webb even showed some flaws for the first time in his career, landing on the injured list to end the year.

Landon Roupp and Adrian Houser are fine back-end guys, but this rotation really lacks a reliable Robin to their Batman (Webb), which is crucial for teams trying to do damage in October. Peralta could even be 1A to Webb’s 1B if things go really well. 

Posey said that there are two priorities this offseason: high-end bullpen pieces and starting pitching. There is no reason why Peralta would not fit the criteria.

Washington Nationals

A team I think is on the brink of making huge noise is the Washington Nationals. After having a great first half to the year, they trailed off towards the end of the season. The team now looks to build on the core they have created and finally look to be in win-now mode again.

The main reason this team fell off so hard was their pitching. The Nationals set a record for the most blown saves in a single season with 38. Their starters didn’t fare much better, with the lone bright spot being Cade Cavalli. Their quality start percentage sat bottom four in the league sitting at just 22%. The team also sat 29th in innings pitched per game from their starters. This certainly did not help the already struggling bullpen, and is exactly why they need to start stockpiling starters.

Now, obviously this is a long shot, but it’s a move the Nationals should be ready to make. They have proven to have the bats, scoring the third-most runs in the league in 2026, now it’s time to support those bats with the arms that can back them and hold leads down.