The Padres have locked in a familiar arm for 2027, with left-hander Wandy Peralta exercising his player option for $4.45 million, according to the first report from Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
Peralta’s decision keeps him under contract through the final year of the four-year, $16.5 million deal he signed with San Diego, and he’ll hit free agency after the 2027 season.
This past year, Peralta was a steady presence for the Padres out of the bullpen and occasionally in a different role. He made 65 appearances overall, including 60 in relief and five as an opener, and finished 3-3 with a 3.61 ERA. Over 77.1 innings, he struck out 50 and walked 23.
That workload continued a recent trend. Peralta has now reached at least 70 innings in each of the last two seasons with San Diego. In 2025, he posted a 3.14 ERA across 71.2 innings.
The Padres brought Peralta in from free agency before the 2024 season, and he has given them exactly the kind of multi-inning relief help they were after. In three seasons with the club, he owns a 3.51 ERA over 187.1 innings.
He has not been used as a save specialist in San Diego, though the team has had the option to lean on him in bigger moments if needed. Peralta does not have a save with the Padres, despite collecting 13 over his first eight MLB seasons.
His path to San Diego has included stops with several organizations. Peralta originally signed with the Cincinnati Reds in May 2010, made his major league debut in 2016, and stayed with Cincinnati until late in the 2019 season, when the San Francisco Giants claimed him off waivers. He was then traded to the New York Yankees in April 2021, where he emerged as a dominant reliever.
Across three seasons in New York, Peralta appeared in 165 games and logged a 2.82 ERA over 153 innings. That stretch helped set up the four-year deal he later signed with the Padres.
For his career, Peralta has thrown 533 regular-season innings and carries a 3.75 ERA. He has also made 10 postseason appearances, including three with San Diego, and has a 3.18 ERA with 12 strikeouts and one walk over 11.1 innings.
Peralta pitched in the postseason for the Padres in 2024 and 2025, but he was not on either playoff roster this year.
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Padres Quietly Get Bullpen Help At A Time They Needed It Most
Wandy Peralta is sticking around in San Diego, and the timing matters for a Padres club that has leaned heavily on its relief corps. The left-hander has exercised his $4.45 million player option to remain with the team for the 2027 season, giving the bullpen another experienced arm and extending a run of continuity that has quietly become part of the Padres late-game identity.
Peralta has now chosen to stay with San Diego in each of the past three offseasons, a sign the fit has worked for both sides. With the bullpen still a central piece of how the Padres want to win, keeping a dependable lefty in the mix helps stabilize a group that can never have too much depth, especially when the season starts to test the back end of the staff. [Read more 🡒]