After somehow leading the majors in starter ERA for the first two months of the season, the Mets were ravaged by injuries and regression more than anyone could have predicted. As a team, New York’s staff ERA after the All-Star break was 4.74, which ranked 25th out of the 30 clubs.
The most glaring flaw for the Mets was the lack of a true ace, someone who could take the ball every five days and virtually guarantee a win, even if everything was going wrong around him. And while there aren’t too many of those available this winter, perhaps New York’s desperation to compete for championships will lead them to trade for another team’s No. 1 starter.
On Thursday, Ryan Finkelstein of Just Baseball predicted that New York would acquire Milwaukee Brewers star Freddy Peralta, who is entering the final year of his team-friendly extension and has been a hot name in the trade rumor mill since the Brewers’ other All-Star, Brandon Woodruff, put the team in a payroll crunch by accepting his qualifying offer.
“Peralta would have been the top free agent on the market this year, and outside of Tarik Skubal or Hunter Greene getting traded, no better arm is on the trade market,” wrote Finkelstein.
“The Brewers want a controllable starter in the return, and the Mets have either Jonah Tong or Brandon Sproat they can put on the table to headline the deal. Both are (among) our top 100 prospects, and they also finished the season in the big leagues.”
Peralta, 29, racked up 5.5 bWAR across 33 starts this year, striking out 200 batters for the second straight season. Among all the starters in the sport, only Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, Dylan Cease, and Sonny Gray have matched that latter feat.
If there’s another good reason for the Mets to be the team that acquires Peralta, assuming Milwaukee is willing to listen to realistic offers, it’s that New York has the nearly limitless cash flow to sign him to a long-term extension, something Milwaukee likely wouldn’t be able to afford after exercising his outrageously cheap $8 million club option.
And, of course, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns served in the same role for the Brewers before coming to New York two offseasons ago, so few executives have more firsthand knowledge of what Peralta brings to the table.
