Mets acquire Freddy Peralta: Brewers ace traded to New York for forward rotation
The Mets have bolstered their rotation with one of the best starters in the game. New York is expected to acquire All-Star Freddy Peralta in a four-player trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, the teams announced Wednesday night. Pitcher Tobias Myers will also go to the Mets, while prospects Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams return to Milwaukee.
Peralta, 29, is the latest big-name Brewer to be traded one year before free agency, joining Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams. Milwaukee picked up Peralta’s $8 million club option earlier this season, but also Brandon Woodruff. accepted a qualifying offer of $22.025 millionthe club faced salary problems. The Peralta trade clears money and adds talent.
This past season was a breakout year for Peralta, who finished fifth in the National League in Cy Young voting. He made 30 starts for the third consecutive season and set career highs in wins (17), innings (176 ⅔), ERA (2.70), and WAR (5.5). That 5.5 MPI was fourth in the NL and eighth among all pitchers. Peralta is, without a doubt, one of the best starting pitchers in the game.
With the Mets, he will be in a rotating lineup that includes a combination of superstars Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, David Peterson and Kodai Senga. President of baseball operations David Stearns, who worked with Peralta in Milwaukee, has been vocal about his desire to be the starting pitcher for the 2026 season.
“Acquiring Freddy adds another stable starter that will help lead our rotation,” Stearns said in a statement. “Throughout the offseason, we’ve been looking to fill out our rotation with another front-runner, and we’re glad we were able to bring Freddy to the Mets.”
This capped off a busy season for the Mets, which also saw them add Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien, Luis Robert Jr., Jorge Polanco, and others while bidding adieu to mainstays like Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nimmo, and Edwin Díaz.
Even after trading their ace, the NL Central champion Brewers boast beneficial depth. Their rotation depth chart currently looks like this:
- RHP Brandon Woodruff
- RHP Jacob Misiorowski
- RHP Quinn Priester
- RHP Chad Patrick
- RHP Logan Henderson
- LHP Robert Gasser
- LHP Hall
With Peralta’s regular season in 2026, the Mets would be able to make him a qualifying offer next season and receive a compensatory draft pick if he signs elsewhere. That can reduce trading costs a bit. And, of course, there’s always the possibility of a long-term extension, which is better than a compensatory draft pick.
Peralta is entering the final year of a five-year, $15.5 million contract extension he signed in February 2020. That contract includes $8 million in club options for both 2024 and 2025, making Peralta one of the game’s top prospects.
Myers, 27, made six starts and 16 relief appearances for the Brewers in 2025. In two MLB seasons, he has an ERA+ of 132 and a FIP of 3.92 in 188 ⅔ innings.
As for the Brewers’ side of things, outfielder Williams is ranked by CBS Sports as 14th prospect in the National League East. Here is an excerpt from RJ Anderson’s writing:
“Williams will challenge your preconceived notions. He’s a 5-foot-7 speedster with experience at all three pitches. Yet his offensive game isn’t built on a solid foundation of hitting skills. Instead, he’s talking about the slug. Williams elevates and pulls the ball allowing him to get to multiple pedequencies. That Williams swings and misses a lot (he had a 73.5% contact rate in Triple-A), meaning he’s likely to play a quarter of the time in the majors and must provide enough of everything else — power, mobility, defense, and athleticism — to enjoy a big-league career.
The 25-year-old Sproat is a right-hander who started four games for the Mets last season. Across parts of the minor league campaign, the University of Florida product has posted a 3.83 ERA and a 2.57 K/BB average in 48 starts and two relief appearances. In his brief time in the majors in 2025, Sproat averaged 96 mph with his fastball.
