David Lennon: Yankees have to deal with Rays' Freddy Peralta, who has turned it around since bring traded from Mets
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Freddy Peralta throws in the first inning of a game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sept. 25 in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/Laurence Kesterson
Turns out, the Mets were right about Freddy Peralta.
When president of baseball operations David Stearns identified Peralta, his former ace with the Brewers, as the perfect walk-year candidate to fortify a playoff-bound rotation, sending two prospects to Milwaukee last December was a no-brainer.
Another attractive sweetener to the deal? Peralta was had for the low, low price of $8 million -- the last option year of the team-friendly contract Stearns engineered before COVID-19 upended the 2020 season.
Across the board, from front-line starter value at a fraction of the market cost, Peralta figured to be a can’t-miss addition for the 2026 season.
And he is. Just for the Rays.
Peralta heads into Monday night’s Division Series Game 2 start against the Yankees after being named the AL’s Pitcher of the Month for September, when he went 4-0 with a 0.96 ERA over five starts, including a 0.89 WHIP and .165 opponents batting average. Somehow, this is the very same pitcher who had a 4.99 ERA and 1.478 WHIP in 22 starts for the Mets. His ERA ballooned to 7.92 over his final seven starts, yet the AL-leading Rays gladly snatched him up after missing out on Tarik Skubal.
“I think it's always instructive when a player goes someplace else and has a level of success that they didn't have here,” Stearns said a week ago during his season-ending news conference. “In the case of Freddy, we were unable to get him to do what Tampa Bay -- through their processes -- has been able to get him to do. The goals were the same, we just couldn't quite get him over the hump."
Whatever the Mets’ first-year pitching coach Justin Willard failed to unlock in Peralta, it’s not surprising that the Rays -- one of baseball’s highest-IQ organizations -- found those keys in short order. They’ve increased his changeup usage, upgraded his mechanics and even squeezed more velocity from his fastball, which averaged 96.2 mph on Sept. 25 in his last Rays regular-season start, up from 94.4 with the Mets.
All of that didn’t happen by accident.
“I believe it was Kyle [Snyder],” said Peralta, referring to the Rays pitching coach. “Because the information and the way he communicated to me, it was the right way to do it.”
Don’t discount the change of scenery or circumstance, either. Peralta’s sunny personality noticeably dimmed as his struggles snowballed with the Mets, and he realized how difficult it can be to slow the negative momentum. Separating from that Flushing fatalism was part of Snyder’s message, too.
“To trust myself and forget about the past,” Peralta said Saturday night. “It was a new beginning when I got here.”
If you could draw up the ideal deadline target for the budget-conscious braintrust down in Tampa Bay, Peralta checked all the boxes as a distressed asset with high upside. The Rays like nothing better than a fixer-upper, and were so confident in a Peralta rebound they picked up the roughly $2.5 million left on his deal.
After a few early hiccups, including a badly timed debut when Peralta was hammered in the high altitude of Coors Field, he became one of MLB’s top deadline acquisitions. Since Aug. 10, Peralta had the second-best WHIP (0.89), his .176 opponents batting average trailed only Cam Schlittler (.146) and his ERA (2.26) was fourth-best among qualified AL starters. Suddenly, Peralta had reverted back to the same guy who finished fifth in the NL’s Cy Young voting a year ago.
“I don't want anybody to lose sight that Freddy Peralta has been an elite pitcher for a long time,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said during Sunday’s workout at the Trop. “I know he had three months that he'd like to have back from his time with the Mets. I give Freddy all the credit in the world for coming here, being super positive, high energy, open-minded and very, in a way, I think he was vulnerable.”
What Cash meant by “vulnerable” refers to Peralta’s lines of communication with the coaching staff, the “back and forth” about his comfort level doing certain things on the mound. Why that didn’t happen with the Mets remains a lingering question, especially if Peralta pitches the Rays to a 2-0 series lead Monday night.
He’s faced the Yankees just once this season, giving up three runs -- including a homer to Ben Rice -- and issuing six walks over five innings during their Subway Series showdown in May. Safe to say this is a different Peralta now, with more confidence in his weapons, and he’s getting a Yankees lineup that was dominated to a dizzying extent by Drew Rasmussen’s one-hit effort (10 strikeouts) over eight innings in the Rays’ 1-0 victory Saturday night.
“Obviously, coming here to the Rays, down here at the Trop, really accentuates or takes advantage of good four-seam fastball qualities, which he certainly has,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, referring to the dome’s climate-controlled environment. “They’ve done a good job of evolving his mix a little bit.”
Peralta’s transformation has been remarkable. Cash mentioned that being part of the Rays’ “winning culture” helped trigger the pitcher’s renaissance. The fact that he outpitched Skubal -- the other deadline gem -- for the month of September suggests that something clicked in a big way. Despite Peralta insisting he was “happy” with the Mets, it’s hard to ignore the turnaround didn’t happen until Flushing was in his rear-view.
“Everything changed when I got traded,” Peralta said. “I’ve been treated here as a king, and I feel really good about it.”
He’s already reversed his plunging free-agent value, but a stellar October -- starting Monday night -- should further enhance his market this winter. A Flushing sequel feels unlikely, however.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
