Rays Enter The Fray For Mets' Freddy Peralta

[Steve Drumwright]

 

With New York Mets right-handed starter Freddy Peralta set to depart, the only question is where he will land.

Among the latest destinations to perk up is the Tampa Bay Rays, who lead the AL East.

Robert Murray of FanSided said the Rays are looking for rental starting pitchers. One of those is the prize of this year's trade deadline, two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers, while Peralta is one of the other options for the Rays.

Peralta, who was scratched from his scheduled start Friday due to Monday's trade deadline, is making a very affordable $8 million this season, of which the acquiring team would be taking on about $2.35 million. Murray also included names of seven other rental starters, led by Clay Holmes, Peralta's Mets teammate, and Kevin Gausman of the Toronto Blue Jays.

The 30-year-old Peralta has had a disappointing season for the Mets after being acquired in a high-profile trade from the Milwaukee Brewers in the offseason. He has a 4.45 FIP (4.99 ERA) in 22 starts with 9.4% walk rate and 22.1% strikeout rate.

 

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[Benjamin Grimm]

Anthony DiComo says... 

 

The Rays have added to their pitching staff in a big way, agreeing to a deal to acquire right-hander Freddy Peralta from the Mets for a package including multiple prospects, a source tells MLB.com's Anthony DiComo.

The Mets will receive OF Aidan Smith (Rays' No. 15 prospect), RHP Gary Gill Hill (No. 26) and 2B Émilien Pitre (No. 27), a source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand. The teams have not confirmed the deal

[Edgy MD]

The Mets are loading up on Aidans!!

[Radar]

Fire Stearns. Peralta trade may go down as one of the worst. Watch him shine Rays on the Rays now. which makes you also question Boy Genuis coaching staffs. This guy is at this point Steve Cohen's biggest blunder. Don't think a year from now it will look better other than maybe Stevie will can him. Edit: when saying one of worst trades I'm referring that we gave two high prospects in the end for three much lower prospects. Not saying I was against the trade for Paralta to begin with.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Pitre is hitting 300 at AA. Hill is a New Yorker. Smith appears to be sucking.

[Frayed Knot]

And Gary Gill Hill is fun to say!

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Maybe it's pronounced Gary Jill Hill

[Gwreck]

33 minutes ago, Radar said:

Fire Stearns. Peralta trade may go down as one of the worst.

…

Edit: when saying one of worst trades I'm referring that we gave two high prospects in the end for three much lower prospects. Not saying I was against the trade for Paralta to begin with.

It’s almost as if you admit that sometimes moves that seem to make sense at the time don’t always work out

[Radar]

1 minute ago, Gwreck said:

It’s almost as if you admit that sometimes moves that seem to make sense at the time don’t always work out

That's what I'm saying specifically about the original Paralta trade. I at the time was okay with it. I do question why he looked so bad here. Coaching  needs to be looked at. Maybe last years coaches could have helped. Maybe we didn't want to pay them? If you bargain shop players why wouldn't you bargain shop coaches?

[Benjamin Grimm]

FanGraphs gives Émilien Pitre an ETA of 2027.

I can't get to his Baseball America scouting report, but apparently Google Gemini can:

Strengths

• Plate Discipline: Displays a remarkably mature eye, walking at a high clip (over 18% clip in parts of 2026) while keeping strikeout rates exceptionally low.

• Defense: Possesses above-average range to his right, comfortable turning double plays and making accurate throws on the run.

• Baserunning: Aggressive and efficient base stealer, compiling high stolen-base totals across his college and minor-league stints. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Weaknesses & Limitations

• Lack of Power: Features a flat left-handed swing that produces grounders and singles/doubles rather than home runs, capping his power projection at around 5–10 home runs per year.

• Positional Versatility: Average arm strength restricts him mostly to second base rather than a utility or shortstop role. [1, 2, 3]

[Frayed Knot]

So Peralta coming off a good year with a full season of team control was worth a better package of prospects as compared to being dealt in the midst of the worst season of his career and with only two months before he could be a FA?

Got it!

[seawolf17]

Oof.

[smg58]

The package (the #8, #15, and #21 players in a pretty deep system) is very generous for two months of a pitcher who is quite frankly pitching poorly.  I'm all for criticizing the initial deal -- Peralta was a 3.60 pitcher who got lucky last season and shouldn't have been treated like an ace -- but we shouldn't judge this deal by that deal.

[seawolf17]

I was at the SMets game today in Rochester and they pulled Tobias Myers after three innings. I said "I bet he's on his way to New York" and checked my phone to find the Peralta news.

Christopher Morel homered three times- all no-doubters - in a 9-7 win. He's not the answer, but goodness, when he makes contact, the ball goes far.

[Benjamin Grimm]

[Centerfield]

With this little coming back, I would have given serious thought to just retain Freddy and offer the QO.  If he walks, you get picks back.  And maybe the picks aren't as good as the guys you got, but there's a least a chance he accepts the QO.  And Freddy Peralta on a one year deal isn't a bad bet.

Also, you dampen his market with the QO.  You have to figure his market is down after having a bad year.  Maybe some teams would be willing to sign him to "prove it" deals, but that gets much harder when the guy has a QO attached.

Very few GMs are dumb enough to players attached to a QO to one year deals. 

[Gwreck]

4 minutes ago, Centerfield said:

With this little coming back, I would have given serious thought to just retain Freddy and offer the QO.  If he walks, you get picks back.  And maybe the picks aren't as good as the guys you got, but there's a least a chance he accepts the QO.  And Freddy Peralta on a one year deal isn't a bad bet.

Also, you dampen his market with the QO.  You have to figure his market is down after having a bad year.  Maybe some teams would be willing to sign him to "prove it" deals, but that gets much harder when the guy has a QO attached.

Very few GMs are dumb enough to players attached to a QO to one year deals. 

“Freddy Peralta on a one year deal isn’t a bad bet” is doing a lot of work in this analysis.  

We got a pretty good preview of that, right?  22 starts, an 83 ERA+, and -0.2 WAR.  That’s ugly. 

Peralta could easily have taken the QO and then you’ve signed up for that ugliness another year (at about $25M), hoping that he’ll be better.  Seems very unpalatable.

Getting the QO picks would require keeping him AND he gets better so that he doesn’t take the QO AND hoping that some other team is willing to sign him so you actually get the picks.  Just too many variables versus the certainty of taking whatever you can get now.
 

[Benjamin Grimm]

I agree. Although this deal wasn't as good as some of the things that had been suggested, it's still better than keeping him. The draft pick the Mets would have received would have been pretty low. At least Pitre is closer to being ready, plus you have two other guys as well.

[Centerfield]

1 hour ago, Gwreck said:

“Freddy Peralta on a one year deal isn’t a bad bet” is doing a lot of work in this analysis.  
 

Yes.  The premises of my thinking is that the team would want Freddy back on a one year deal, $25M deal.  I would be all for this.  I think there's talent there, and someone should be able to help him get back to what he was.

(whether that someone exists on the Mets' coaching staff is another story)

If you don't want Peralta back at that price, and I can certainly understand those that don't, then yes, you have to take whatever you can get.  

[Gwreck]

At some point the money might be a limiting factor but we haven’t seen that with the Mets very much under this ownership.

The bigger issue is that Peralta is not good.  
And while I fully agree that the coaching staff is not worthy of being retained, I’m not at all confident that Peralta is going to rebound.  I think it’s far better to move on to someone else.

[Edgy MD]

1 hour ago, Gwreck said:

At some point the money might be a limiting factor but we haven’t seen that with the Mets very much under this ownership.

Jacob deGrom and Pete Alonso have entered the chat.

[Gwreck]

It was a money crunch that led to those departures?  That’s breaking news to me.

I was very much under the impression that deGrom wanted to leave New York and the Mets simply didn’t want to retain Alonso.  Wasn’t it well documented that the Mets didn’t even make Alonso an offer this offseason?

[Edgy MD]

Fastball Freddy told me "Hey good bye"
Off to Tampa, I asked, "Why? Why?"
Tampa's ass, Tampa's cruel
Au revoir, mon ami. S'agit-il d'un coup?
But he don't stop, for no shortstop
He went out to the parking lot
And he got in his car and he drove real far
And you cry all night, till you see a light
And it comes right down, and it lands on the ground
And out come some wannabe stars
One can run, one's got a gun
But you read the thread, and you shit your bed!
And read about these wannabe stars
You go out at night, egging cars
You egg Cadillacs, a Coupe deVille
'Cause of Aidan Smith, and Gary Gill Hill
And you don't stop, you keep on egging cars
Then, when there's no more cars, you go out at night
And egg some bars where Met fans meet
Emelien Pitre, what the fuck?
Canadian shortstop, gotta suck!
He broke his toe, he moves too slow
And Uncle Steve, I'm through with cars
I'm egging bars, yeah, hall to hall
Citi Field, wall to wall
I'm gonna egg 'em all
Rapture, be pure!

David Stearns? still a Brewer?
Don't strain your brain, take the Seven Train
You'll be singin' through the pain
Said, don't stop! Do punk rock

[Benjamin Grimm]

I can't believe she was married to Dagwood.

[Frayed Knot]

21 hours ago, Gwreck said:

Wasn’t it well documented that the Mets didn’t even make Alonso an offer this offseason?

Once they found out that others were willing to go five years on him, yes.

[Gwreck]

40 minutes ago, Frayed Knot said:

Once they found out that others were willing to go five years on him, yes.

They also didn’t make an offer before knowing that.

(I suppose at some level it can be argued that the Mets did have a financial cap on what they were willing to pay Pete, since they didn’t want to do a 5 year deal.  But as established by the 2/$54M deal they agreed to in the prior offseason, the holdup certainly was length and not the annual salary amount).

[Edgy MD]

1 hour ago, Benjamin Grimm said:

I can't believe she was married to Dagwood.

Sorry to post that.  That damn song has been in my head all day and I had to shake it.

The good news here is we will still get value from Tobias Myers!

[Frayed Knot]

1 hour ago, Gwreck said:

They also didn’t make an offer before knowing that.

No they didn't. They were likely doing what they had done the previous year which was to see where the market was heading for Pete just one year after, despite both predictions and demands that he'd get up to eight years, no team even went four. Pete/Boras had to know off of that that the Mets were reluctant to go long-term and so likely jumped at the first offer that had the words 'five years' in it without ever giving the Mets the option to match (which they almost certainly wouldn't have done anyway even if he had).

And while the Mets under Cohen/Stearns have certainly not being shy on offering high-dollar/shorter terms deals (including for Pete himself for the '25 season), I think it's clear that the Pete negotiations (or non-negotiations) were always more about the length than the dollars. Many of us said as much beforehand in a nearly three-year long thread on the topic.

[Gwreck]

I remember the thread and surely participated in it.  I believe the end result supports my analysis:  money wasn’t the limiting factor as to why Pete wasn’t retained.

[Centerfield]

One can certainly conclude that years were the determining factor, given that the Mets decided to give nearly as much money to Bo Bichette ($142M) as they declined to give to Pete Alonso ($155M).

Consider that Bo's money is due over 3 years, instead of 5, and the value of the picks you gave up for the QO, it's possible that those deals are of fairly similar value. 

 For his career, Alonso has been a better hitter, and is a better hitter again this year.  Pete is older, and so the decline risk is there.  But is it unreasonable to think that their production may be similar over a 3 year period?  

So if that's the case, even if Alonso is a bench piece the last two years, doesn't the Alonso contract provide more value?