The Mets’ trade deadline picture keeps circling back to Freddy Peralta, and now the twist is hard to miss: the Brewers, the club that sent him to New York in January, have checked in on a possible reunion.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that Milwaukee has been in touch with the Mets about Peralta’s availability. That would make for a strange and very real deadline loop, especially after New York paid a hefty price to land him in the first place, sending right-hander Brandon Sproat and infielder Jett Williams to the Brewers.
At the time, Peralta was supposed to be the finishing touch. Fresh off a career year in Milwaukee, he was brought in to anchor the rotation and help define a reshaped roster.
Instead, the move has gone sideways. Peralta has posted a 4.99 ERA across 22 starts, and his struggles have played a major part in why the Mets have fallen so far short of expectations this season.
That’s what makes a potential deal with Milwaukee so intriguing. Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns would be trying to extract value from the same team that just took two of New York’s top prospects a few months ago. If Peralta goes back to the Brewers, the return conversation gets awkward in a hurry.
Milwaukee isn’t the only club poking around. Robert Murray of FanSided reported that the Rays have also checked in on Peralta. Tampa, like the Brewers, is positioned to make a serious push this fall, and Murray added that the Rays are also interested in Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, though it remains unclear whether he’ll actually be moved.
Peralta, though, feels like the more obvious deadline name. The Mets have little reason to keep him and let him leave in free agency this winter when they could at least recover some value during a lost season.
And even with the ugly stat line, rival teams may not be ready to write him off completely. Murray noted that some evaluators believe the Mets’ defensive issues helped drag down Peralta’s numbers, while others are curious whether a new environment could unlock better results.
There’s also the price tag. Peralta is only owed the rest of his $8 million salary for this season, which Murray pegged at roughly $3 million. That makes him a classic buy-low arm for contenders, whether they need rotation help or simply want to add another starter to an already strong group.
Clay Holmes is another name the Mets need to move before Monday’s deadline. If they don’t extend him before then, and that seems unlikely, New York has to treat him like an expiring piece. Holmes was excellent for the Mets before a fractured fibula suffered on a comebacker in May, and he has a player option for next season that he is expected to decline in order to test free agency.
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The discussion gets even more eyebrow-raising because it frames the Mets as a team that could be looking to reshape its core while another club searches for stability at shortstop. Castillos piece also points to the kind of prospect package that would have to be in play if a deal ever gained traction, but the biggest obstacle is obvious: Lindor controls the process, and any real movement would hinge on whether he ever became open to it. [Read more 🡒]