The Dodgers have been tied to another big-name arm as the pitching market starts to take shape, with Freddy Peralta emerging as a possible fallback if Tarik Skubal proves too expensive or too difficult to land.
Peralta is set to hit free agency after a wild 2026 season, and depending on which version of him teams believe in, he may be the best starter available behind Skubal. His year was a strange one.
He went to the New York Mets before the 2026 season, struggled badly there, and was then essentially moved on to the Tampa Bay Rays. But by the end of it, he had rebuilt enough value to get back into the top tier of the market.
That turnaround included a postseason surge that reminded everyone why he was once viewed so highly. He was so strong in October that he took home ALCS MVP honors, and that run helped restore some of the shine that had faded during his rough stretch in Queens.
The Athletic placed Peralta at No. 10 on its free agent list and projected a three-year, $84 million deal. The Dodgers were listed among the best fits. Their evaluation pointed to how much better he looked once he got to Tampa Bay.
“While the right-hander’s time in Queens did not go as expected, he was back to being a potential frontline starter with Tampa Bay,” The Athletic’s ranking read.
“His release point was closer to where it had been during his best stretches in Milwaukee, and he was throwing harder than ever. That doesn’t erase those four disappointing months with the Mets but it does make them easier to explain away.”
At first glance, the Dodgers don’t seem like the most obvious landing spot. Their rotation already includes Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, which makes Peralta look more like a luxury than a necessity. But the fit becomes easier to understand if he wants a shorter deal with a higher annual salary, especially if Scott Boras pushes Skubal toward a long-term contract.
That’s where Los Angeles could come in. The Dodgers can handle the short-term cost, and Peralta’s appeal goes beyond pure stuff. He may not have the same ceiling as some of the other names in that rotation, but he brings durability and volume, and that matters.
There are still obvious concerns. The Mets version of Peralta was rough, with a 4.99 ERA and 4.45 FIP.
His fastball dipped to 94.3 there, and his strikeout rate fell off. Even after the move to Tampa Bay, the punchouts never fully came back.
He posted a 3.25 ERA and 3.93 FIP with the Rays, but a 6.99 strikeout-per-nine rate is not what teams want if they’re paying top dollar.
Still, the innings count is hard to ignore. Peralta has thrown more than 165 innings in each of his last four seasons, and that kind of reliability would take some pressure off a Dodgers staff that has had trouble staying healthy.
So yes, this would be a pivot away from Skubal. But it’s not a wild one. In the Dodgers’ world, it actually makes a fair amount of sense.
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