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.
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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.”
