Updated Post: July 31 at 10:15 a.m. EST
Per The Athletic’s Will Sammon and Ken Rosenthal, the Mets are asking for a top-100 prospect and more in exchange for Freddy Peralta during their early talks surrounding the right-hander ahead of the August 3 trade deadline.
Sammon and Rosenthal added that the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies are among the teams who have registered “serious interest” in Peralta, who is currently in line to start Friday night’s game against the Miami Marlins. That could change in an instant this time of year, however.
Updated Post
In addition to the report below, Jeff Passan says he’s heard the Mets have talked to the Brewers about Freddy Peralta. Wouldn’t that be something.
Original Post
Per Robert Murray of FanSided, the Tampa Bay Rays have shown interest in Mets pitcher Freddy Peralta. The report also mentioned an interest in the Angels’ Zach Neto.
It is no secret that Peralta has struggled of late, raising his ERA to 4.99 on the season. But it was only a few weeks ago he had a 3.63 ERA and 1.32 WHIP on the season.
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
While the results have not been there recently, there have been some positive signs. His 28.6% whiff rate in July is something teams will likely look heavily at when factoring what they expect to get out of him going forward while all of his hard hit metrics look strong as well. His fastball velocity has also been climbing over the last month as well.
With only $3 million owed for the rest of the season, Peralta could be attractive to a team like the Rays, who typically sit on the lower end of MLB payrolls. While the Mets likely would not get a top prospect like Theo Gilliam in return, the Rays have a number of interesting players on the top-100 bubble like Cooper Flemming and Brody Hopkins.
Murray’s report mentioned the Rays’ injury-riddled rotation and that starting pitching is a priority for them.
“Some evaluators wonder if Peralta would benefit from a change of scenery,” Murray wrote. “Adding to the intrigue and potential to buy low is that his $8 million salary (roughly $3 million the remainder of the season) allows almost any team to be involved.”
