In an offseason defined by significant change, the New York Mets are completing their roster overhaul with a flourish by acquiring top starter Freddy Peralta Wednesday night in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, league sources told The Athletic.
In exchange for the 29-year-old, who is a free agent after the season, and reliever Tobias Myers, the Brewers are set to receive pitcher Brandon Sproat and infielder Jett Williams, both top prospects, league sources said.
Throughout the offseason, the Mets targeted a starter worthy of plugging into the top half of their rotation. Peralta deserves to reside at the top. The rest of the Mets’ rotation is set to feature Nolan McLean, Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, David Peterson and Kodai Senga with Jonah Tong and Christian Scott lingering as depth.
Peralta in final year of team-friendly extension
Peralta should have been a free agent by now, but in March of 2020 — when it was still unclear whether he would be a starter or a reliever — he agreed to a five-year, $15.5 million extension. The deal came with a pair of $8 million team options, which the Brewers have gladly exercised as Peralta has become a top-of-the-rotation bargain.
When Peralta signed the extension, The Athletic wrote that his agency, Rep1 Baseball, “wasn’t too pleased with him sacrificing arbitration years for security.”
Peralta is due to make $8 million again this year before becoming a free agent at the end of the season when he’ll be 30 years old and in line for a much larger payday. In the meantime, he’s a dependable two-time All-Star being paid like the uncertain wild card he used to be.
Brewers have done this before
When veteran Brandon Woodruff accepted the Brewers’ qualifying offer in November, questions naturally turned to the trickle-down effect and whether Woodruff’s $22.025 million contract made it inevitable that the small-market Brewers would have to trade Peralta. Team officials insisted the two were unrelated.
“Independent decisions,” president of baseball operations Matt Arnold told The Athletic, “and excited about our rotation.”
But finances have always mattered to the Brewers. According to Cot’s Contracts, the Brewers have not had a top-15 payroll in the past decade. In February of 2024, they traded ace Corbin Burnes — who was on the verge of a $15.6 million salary — to the Baltimore Orioles for young starter DL Hall and infielder Joey Ortiz.
Burnes was a homegrown Cy Young Award winner who, like Peralta, was a year away from free agency. The Brewers traded his final year of control for two big league-ready players: Ortiz has been a glove-first, everyday infielder the past two seasons, while Hall has a 4.30 ERA in 33 appearances in between injuries.
Peralta defied the odds to become an All-Star
Never an elite prospect, and given a modest signing bonus as a teenager, Peralta rarely looked the part of a big league ace. He has neither a big frame nor a massive fastball, but Peralta uses a four-pitch mix to avoid hard contact and generate swings and misses.
Since 2021 he ranks 15th in the majors with a 3.30 ERA (among those with at least 500 innings), and only Dylan Cease and Blake Snell have a higher K/9 rate. Peralta is coming off the best season of his career, in which he had a 2.70 ERA across 33 starts, making his second All-Star team and finishing fifth in NL Cy Young Award voting. His velocity has improved throughout his big league career, and he averaged a career-best 94.8 mph with his four-seamer in 2025.
Peralta has spent his entire big league career with the Brewers and has been a rotation fixture since 2021, but he was originally signed by the Seattle Mariners in 2013. The Brewers acquired him almost exactly a decade ago, in a trade for Adam Lind in December of 2015.
State of the Brewers rotation
The Brewers had the best record in baseball last season, and they’ve advanced to the postseason in seven of the past eight years. They’ve been among the most consistent teams in baseball, but as with every small market franchise, questions constantly swirl about how — and whether — the Brewers can maintain such success.
For the second time in three years, they’ve chosen to add by subtraction. Previously this winter, they traded outfielder Isaac Collins and reliever Nick Mears to the Kansas City Royals for bullpen lefty Angel Zerpa.
In trading Peralta, the Brewers are putting faith in a young rotation to sustain them. Woodruff now looks like the de facto ace while first-round pick Jacob Misiorowski emerged last season as another potential difference maker. Minor trade additions Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick also pitched well last season as mid-rotation starters, and Robert Gasser — another minor trade pickup — has pitched well in limited opportunities. The Brewers also have Hall, Logan Henderson and Aaron Ashby as in-house rotation options.
This story will be updated
