Freddy Peralta has turned himself into the kind of pitcher teams chase when the market opens, and the Houston Astros look like the kind of club that could use him most.
The right-hander has been with the Tampa Bay Rays since the trade deadline, and after a first half that raised questions with the New York Mets, he has snapped back into form in a big way. Since Aug.
26, Peralta has made 10 starts, including his postseason work, and gone 7-0 with a 0.89 ERA. Over that stretch, he has piled up 39 strikeouts, issued 16 walks and posted a 0.91 WHIP.
Nobody in the majors has been better in that span by ERA. Not Cam Schlittler, who has a 1.17 ERA, and not Drew Rasmussen, who sits at 1.37.
Peralta pushed that run even further in the ALCS against the Cleveland Guardians, where he went 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA in two starts and emerged as the Rays’ MVP. That made him just the third ALCS MVP in franchise history, alongside Randy Arozarena in 2020 and Matt Garza in 2008.
His postseason line backs up the praise. In four outings this October, Peralta is 2-0 with a 1.08 ERA across 16 ⅔ innings.
He has 12 strikeouts, seven walks and has allowed only one home run against the 69 batters he has faced. He also has a relief appearance with a hold, and Tampa Bay has gone 4-0 in his four appearances.
Peralta is headed for free agency at the end of the season, which puts him on a long list of arms that will draw attention. By combined fWAR over the past two seasons, he ranks sixth among starting pitchers at 5.5, behind Tarik Skubal (11.9), Rasmussen (7.5), Trevor Rogers (7.3), Kevin Gausman (7.2) and Sonny Gray (7.0).
What makes him especially appealing right now is the way he has rebuilt his year. Before the postseason, his numbers had already taken a sharp turn after the shaky first half.
His opponents’ on-base percentage dropped from .334 with the Mets to .294 since joining the Rays, and their OPS fell from .765 to .675. In September, he put up a 0.96 ERA and held the league to a .459 OPS.
There’s also the pedigree. Peralta has already handled the demands of being a rotation leader during his years with the Milwaukee Brewers, and that matters for a Houston rotation that has too much uncertainty and leaned on the bullpen far too often. The Astros just finished with the worst quality-start record in their history, and they need more than a patchwork answer if they want real stability behind Hunter Brown and Peter Lambert.
Still, Tampa Bay could try to keep him. If the Rays move to raise his market value again and continue the adjustments that have restored his dominance, Peralta could stay put.
If that happens, the Astros would have to look elsewhere, and one possible fallback would be Nick Martinez. If the Rays keep Peralta, the 36-year-old right-hander with a club option would be the one pushed out of the rotation for 2027.
Martinez just finished his age-35 season with a strong year, going 15-6 with a 3.10 ERA in 180 innings after a 2025 filled with questions with the Cincinnati Reds. He is not the flashiest answer for Houston, and he would not be the club’s ideal solution if it wants a big-name addition, but he could be more realistic than Peralta depending on how the market plays out.
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