Wandy Peralta is staying put.
The Padres left-hander has exercised his $4.45 million player option, according to Jon Heyman of The New York Post, locking him in for 2027 and extending his run in San Diego’s bullpen. It’s the third straight offseason in which Peralta has opted to remain with the club.
Peralta’s contract, which he signed in February 2024, included a $4.25 million player option for 2025 and $4.45 million player options for both 2026 and ’27. With that structure in place, he chose not to test the market this time around.
Compared with teammate Yuki Matsui - four years younger and coming off a sub-2.00 ERA, though with plenty of good luck - Peralta looked more likely to take a hit if he reached free agency. Instead, he’ll finish out the final year of his current deal.
Matsui has until 4:00pm CT tomorrow to decide whether to stay for two years and $13.5 million.
Peralta has quietly been one of the more dependable relievers around since the start of 2020. Over 376 innings in that span, opponents have managed only a .669 OPS against him, and he’s posted a 3.26 ERA.
The strikeouts usually aren’t loud, but the formula works: sinker, changeup, and a heavy dose of ground balls. From 2021-25, only 11 pitchers with at least 250 innings had a better ground ball rate than Peralta’s 56.8%.
This past season, though, showed a little more wear. Peralta set a career high with 77 1/3 innings and turned in a respectable 3.61 ERA, while also recording a career-best 7.2% walk rate.
But the punchouts dipped to 15.6% of opponents, and he was helped by a 77.7% strand rate. His ground ball rate also fell from 59.7% in 2025 to 45.6% this year.
That’s still above average, but not the elite level he’s usually able to reach. Both xERA and SIERA pegged him at 4.32, noticeably higher than his actual ERA.
Even with that drop-off, Peralta gave San Diego plenty of useful innings. He logged the second-most innings among Padres relievers, trailing only Adrian Morejon, who worked 86 frames.
Bradgley Rodriguez and Mason Miller followed at 70 innings apiece. Morejon turned in an excellent season and is a candidate for a qualifying offer, though he could be too expensive to keep if he ultimately rejects it.
With Morejon and Jason Adam gone, the Padres’ top relief group now starts with Miller, Rodriguez, and Jeremiah Estrada. Peralta doesn’t bring the same flash as that trio, but he does bring reliability and length in the middle innings.
San Diego’s bigger offseason priority is the rotation, with Michael King, Nick Pivetta, Walker Buehler, Robbie Ray, and Casey Mize all headed for free agency. Against that backdrop, keeping Peralta on an affordable deal gives the bullpen some stability and preserves payroll room for the starting staff.
In Other News...
Padres Just Sent A Clear Message About Their Pitching Plans
The Padres have already started sorting out the edges of their pitching staff for the seasons ahead, and the latest moves say a lot about how they view two familiar arms. San Diego exercised its $2.5 million club option on Kyle Hart for 2027, keeping a left-hander in the mix after a 2026 season that showed improvement even if the results were not always clean. It is the kind of decision that suggests the Padres still see value in continuity, especially with a pitching group that has to survive injuries, workload swings and constant turnover.
Yuki Matsui is also staying put for now after declining to opt out of his contract, which keeps him tied to the Padres with a $7 million player option for 2028. Since arriving in 2024, he has given the club durability and effectiveness out of the bullpen, making him one of the steadier late-inning pieces on the roster. Still, the underlying numbers hint at some possible regression, so the Padres are betting that his track record holds while they continue shaping the rest of their pitching plans. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Suddenly Have More Roster Holes To Solve This Winter
The Padres offseason picture got a little wider this week when Miguel Andujar, Lucas Giolito and Griffin Canning all moved into free agency, leaving San Diego with three more decisions to replace than it had a day earlier. The club declined its end of the mutual options on Giolito and Canning, while Andujar turned down his side of the deal, and each player will walk away with a buyout as the front office starts sorting through a roster that already had plenty of winter questions.
For a team trying to stay competitive in a crowded National League race, the timing matters as much as the names. Andujar gave San Diego a useful bat, Giolito and Canning were part of the pitching depth the Padres were counting on, and now all three are on the market with the organization left to decide how much of that production it wants to try to recreate internally or chase elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Just Locked In One Bullpen Piece Amid Bigger Offseason Questions
Wandy Peralta has taken one offseason decision off the Padres board, opting in to his $4.45 million player option for the 2027 season and ensuring he will remain part of San Diegos bullpen plans for at least one more year. The left-hander has been a steady piece for the club since signing before the 2024 season, giving the Padres a reliable option in late-game matchups and a familiar arm they have leaned on across multiple seasons.
For a team still sorting through bigger winter questions, Peraltas choice offers a little continuity in a bullpen that has mattered so much to San Diegos recent success. He has appeared in multiple games each year with the Padres and has kept his ERA in solid shape, which makes his return a useful bit of stability even as the front office continues to weigh the rest of the roster picture. [Read more 🡒]