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The Rays have landed one of the better starters on the trade market. Tampa is set to acquire righty Freddy Peralta in a trade with the New York Mets, reports The Athletic. Neither team has announced the trade. Peralta will be a free agent after the season and was an obvious candidate to be moved once the Mets committed to selling.
Minor-league outfielder Aidan Smith, infielder Émilien Pitre and right-handed pitcher Gary Gill Hill are headed back to New York, according to MLB.com. The Rays will assume the $2.4 million remaining on Peralta’s contract.
Peralta, 30, had a rough go of it with the Mets after coming over from the Milwaukee Brewers in an offseason trade. It is his worst season since 2019, when he was not yet an established big leaguer, and the under-the-hood numbers justify the poor performance. It isn’t a case of poor luck and it has been an enormous step down from his usual performance.
That said, Peralta finished fifth in the NL Cy Young voting in 2025 and has pedigree, plus he takes the ball every fifth day without incident. At his best, he’s someone you want making multiple starts in a postseason series, and he’s not out of place pitching near the front of a contender’s rotation. We just haven’t seen that version of Peralta often in 2026.
He’ll join a rotation that includes Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen, Nick Martinez and Griffin Jax. Headed into Sunday’s slate, the Rays hold a 3 ½-game lead over the New York Yankees in the AL East. They were reported as one of the strongest suitors for Tarik Skubal, but when he landed with the Dodgers instead, the Rays pivoted.
Peralta figures to be the first domino for the Mets. A.J. Minter has already been traded and rental starter Clay Holmes and rental lefty and Brooks Raley are almost certain to be traded next. Huascar Brazoban and Luke Weaver are non-rentals the Mets could also move. A Francisco Lindor trade is not impossible, just extremely unlikely at this point.
Here now are our grades as the Mets send Fastball Freddy to the AL East-leading Rays.
Tampa Bay Rays: B
It has not been pretty for Peralta this season. He owns a 4.99 ERA in 22 starts and 113 ⅔ innings, and the under-the-hood numbers (4.45 FIP and 3.83 expected ERA) don’t exactly scream unlucky. Peralta finished fifth in the NL Cy Young voting last year and he basically never misses a start, so there’s pedigree and reliability. That’s not nothing.
As much as anything, Peralta’s issues are tied to breaking ball command and a drop in arm angle that has flattened out his fastball a bit. The Rays are as good as any team in baseball at coaching up pitchers and, despite his track record, Peralta is very much a project at this point. The thought within baseball is that a sinker could help him. Whether he can add it in-season is another matter.
Rotation help was a must for the Rays, who have used 11 different starters this season (including openers). Their rotation depth chart now looks like this:
- RHP Drew Rasmussen
LHP Shane McClanahan(out with back tightness)- RHP Freddy Peralta
- RHP Griffin Jax
- RHP Nick Martinez
- LHP Ian Seymour
RHP Ryan Pepiot(out with hip surgery)- RHP Mason Englert
McClanahan’s injury is considered minor, but Pepiot is done for the season. Peralta figures to bump Seymour back to the bullpen, where he did his best work as a multi-inning lefty. Jax and Martinez have bullpen experience too. Depending on how the Rays deploy their pitchers in the postseason, they could be used in that role in October. That’s weeks away, though.
Tampa has a four-game lead on the loss column in the AL East and a comfortable 11-game lead in the loss column on a postseason berth in general. Peralta will give them innings as they look to secure the division title and thus a Wild Card Series bye. He’ll then factor into their postseason rotation, and they acquired him at an easy-to-swallow price.
The Rays get a B rather than an A because there’s a chance Peralta continues to pitch like a No. 5 starter the rest of the season and doesn’t move the needle. It’s a good upside play for a division leader, though, and the Rays had prospects to spare.
New York Mets: C
The entire Freddy Peralta experience was a colossal stinker for the Mets. They traded two pretty good prospects (Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams) to get him from the Brewers over the winter, he pitched poorly and they bombed out of contention, then they flipped him for three solid but not amazing prospects. The Mets took L after L after L here.
According to MLB Pipeline, New York acquired Tampa’s No. 15 (Smith), No. 26 (Hill), and No. 27 (Pitre) prospects for Peralta. Keep in mind, though, that the Rays have one of baseball’s deepest farm systems. Their No. 15 prospect would be a top No. 10 prospect in most other systems, and their Nos. 26 and 27 prospects would be top 15-ish in most other systems.
Smith, 22, is having a rough year at mostly Single-A (.672 OPS), but there’s enough raw power to project an impact hitter with an adjustment to his swing. Gill Hill, 21, reached Double-A this season and is a plus control guy who has a deep arsenal but no standout pitch. Pitre, 23, is a glove-first contact guy at Double-A. All three are project prospects the Mets hope to level up.
Because of their competitive balance tax status, the Mets would have only received a compensation draft pick after the fourth round had Peralta declined the qualifying offer and signed elsewhere as a free agent. They beat that value and then some in the trade. It’s just a bad situation all around though, having to salvage the Peralta trade like. Is a C too generous?
