For a second straight day, the Mets executed a late-night trade to fill a significant hole in their roster, acquiring ace right-hander Freddy Peralta from the Brewers.
In return for the pending free agent, the Mets are sending a pair of top-10 prospects, pitcher Brandon Sproat and infielder Jett Williams, to Milwaukee. Sproat becomes the Brewers’ No. 1 overall pitching prospect, while Williams checks in at the organization’s No. 3 overall prospect.
But prospects are still suspect, and the Mets’ need for a top-end starting pitcher to pair with the burgeoning Nolan McLean was dire after last season, in which the rotation imploded over the final four months of the regular season.
The 29-year-old had a career year in 2025, going 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA and 204 strikeouts in 33 starts, finishing fifth in the NL Cy Young Award voting. He is one of just two pitchers (Dylan Cease) to record at least 200 strikeouts in each of the last three seasons and ranks second in the majors with 40 wins since the start of the 2023 season.
“Acquiring Freddy adds another established starter to help lead our rotation,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “Throughout the offseason, we sought to complement our rotation with another front-end pitcher, and we’re thrilled we are able to bring Freddy to the Mets.”
Peralta has been traded twice in his career, and he was acquired by Stearns both times. He picked him up for the Brewers in a Dec. 9, 2015, trade with the Seattle Mariners.
After a slow offseason, which featured a mass exodus of established stars like Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, and Edwin Diaz, Stearns and the Mets have salvaged their winter in the span of a week. They signed star infielder Bo Bichette on Jan. 16 to play third base, then acquired center fielder Luis Robert Jr. from the Chicago White Sox late Tuesday night.
Starting pitching, though, had been the team’s top priority from the moment it missed the postseason on the final day of the 2025 season. Outside of McLean and Clay Holmes, who looks like a dependable middle-of-the-rotation starter after transitioning from closer, New York was sabotaged by its arms.
Sean Manaea never got over an oblique injury, started the season in July, and looked like a shell of the hero from 2024 that helped lead the Mets to the NLCS. Kodai Senga had a 1.47 ERA in the middle of June before a hamstring injury derailed his season. After missing a month, his mechanics were so out of whack that his ERA flirted with 6.00, and he accepted a demotion to Triple-A in September.
David Peterson went from an All-Star in the first half to the inconsistent southpaw who had been unable to build momentum in the majors like in years past.
Still, the Mets are banking on last year’s struggles being an anomaly more than anything.
“I feel good with where we’re at,” manager Carlos Mendoza said during Bichette’s introductory press conference on Wednesday, before the Peralta tarde. “We’re talking about having a Sean Manaea going through a normal offseason… Kodai Senga, and you add Clay Holmes, you have Peterson and [McLean and Jonah Tong], and I feel good where we are as far as the rotation goes.”
