BREAKING: Mets acquire RHP Freddy Peralta from the Brewers

The Mets landed their badly-needed ace for the rotation, although he cost them two top prospects

From the very beginning of the off-season, Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns has said he wanted to acquire starting pitching, and reiterated during Wednesday’s press conference to introduce Bo Bichette that they intended to pursue such starting pitching.

After spending the first three months of the off-season revamping their lineup, improving their defense and re-imaging their bullpen, Stearns finally addressed their need at the top of the rotation in a big way, acquiring RHP Freddy Peralta and RHP Tobias Myers from the Brewers in exchange for top prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, league sources confirmed to Just Mets.

The Mets are sending their third-ranked prospect in Williams and fifth-ranked prospect in Sproat back to the Brewers for Peralta, who has evolved into one of the best right-handed pitchers in the game. Peralta, 29, won a league-best 17 games in 2025 against only six losses with a 2.70 ERA, allowing 124 hits and 66 walks with 204 strikeouts in 176.2 IP. He finished fifth in the Cy Young Award balloting in 2025 and made his second All-Star team last season as well.

Peralta is a fly ball pitcher in large measure, posting only a 37.3 percent ground ball rate in 2025. He relies heavily on a superb fastball/change-up combination but also throws an outstanding curveball and fastball. He held opponents to a .173 batting average on his change-up and a .157 batting average on his slider in 2025.

Peralta will earn a modest $8 million in 2026, after which he can become a free agent. However, he recently expressed interest in signing a contract extension with the Brewers, so it’s possible Stearns— who’s familiarity with Peralta dates back to his time in the Brewers front office— could retain Peralta on a long-term deal. However, Stearns has historically preferred to shy away from long-term second-generation contracts for starting pitchers, so it remains to be seen if the Mets are willing to go down this road with Peralta.

But given the price in prospect capital for the Mets to acquire Peralta, it would behoove the Mets to at least explore the possibility of an extension with the 29-year-old right-hander.

Freddy Peralta via Baseball Savant (Statcast)

Peralta will join a Mets rotation that currently includes Nolan McLean, Sean Manaea, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, and Kodai Senga. With Peralta joining the rotation, Jonah Tong and perhaps Christian Scott are all but assured to start the regular season at Triple-A Syracuse.

As for Myers, 27, he has a 3.15 ERA over the last two seasons with the Brewers. He has served as both a starter and a reliever for Milwaukee since the 2024 season, appearing in 49 games while making 31 starts during that span. Myers has allowed 180 hits and 55 walks with 165 strikeouts in 188.2 IP in the Major Leagues, and he posted a 3.55 ERA in 22 appearances and six starts for the Brewers in 2025.

He missed the first month of the 2025 season with an oblique injury, was sent to the minor leagues in mid-May before returning in July to the Brewers bullpen. He excelled in that role, posting a 2.64 ERA over his final 16 appearances for the Brewers. He will likely join newly-signed RHP Luis Rivera as a middle relief arm for the Mets’ revamped bullpen, hopefully helping to serve as a bridge along with Brooks Raley and AJ Minter to both Luke Weaver and Devin Williams.

Again, this is a big prospect cost for the Mets to get Peralta. Williams is a multi-faceted prospect capable of playing at least three positions up the middle for the Mets. But, he was blocked at shortstop by Francisco Lindor for the foreseeable future, and with Carson Benge emerging as a multi-faceted top prospect himself at the same positions in the outfield, the Mets arguably had some redundancy they could afford to surrender under the right circumstances. The Mets drafted Williams 14th overall in the 2022 amateur draft.

As for Sproat, he made his Major League debut for the Mets in September mostly out of desperation after an up-and-down campaign at Triple-A Syracuse in 2025. He was the club’s second-round pick in the 2023 amateur draft, and quickly ascended to Triple-A in 2024 in the same season he made his pro debut. He did struggle at Triple-A at the end of the 2024 season and into the 2025 season, but pitched well enough to get the call and join the Mets rotation down the stretch in 2025.

Despite the steep cost in prospects, the Mets were able to retain both Tong and McLean and they have more pitching in their rich pipeline, including but not limited to Jonathan Santucci, Will Watson, and Jack Wenniger.

It’s the club’s first major prospect trade since they traded Pete Crow-Armstrong for Javier Báez in 2021.