In parts of three big-league seasons, Sammy Peralta has an unsightly 5.12 ERA in under 50 total innings. He’s pitched for the White Sox (2023-24) and the Angels (2025), two of the thinnest teams in the league when it comes to pitching depth, but he’s still never been able to carve out a meaningful role. The 2026 season will be his ninth as a professional, and he’ll turn 28 next May. October waiver claims are always below-the-radar moves, but this one is unremarkable even by that standard.

Then again, if you’ve watched the Brewers work over the last 10 years (and especially the last five), a lot of familiar chimes will sound in your head as you run down the checklist of characteristics on Peralta. He:

Throws from a low three-quarters slot, almost sidearm;

Had plus extension last year, meaning he gets down the mound well and uses his 6-foot-2 frame to create deception and get more out of his fastball than its 89-miles-per-hour velocity would suggest; and

Hasn’t worked with especially good pitching development groups to this point in his career.

Peralta switched from a four-seam fastball to a two-seamer in 2025, which was a smart choice. The four-seamer was straight and didn’t have any of the surprising rise (from such a low slot) that has allowed previous Brewers sidearm projects Hoby Milner and Grant Anderson to find success with that offering. However, the Brewers are likely to try to reincorporate a four-seamer (with an improved shape) as a way to change eye levels for him. He also switched from a big-bending, high-70s sweeper to a harder, shorter slider. That was another needed tweak; the sweeper out of his slot was far too hittable for righties. The slider is a pitch with which the Brewers likely think he can do much more.

It would be no surprise at all if Milwaukee looks to add a cutter to Peralta’s arsenal. They’re also likely to clean up his mechanics a bit and find an extra 1-2 miles per hour of velocity. There’s never a guarantee that the second or third go-round will yield results as strong as the ones the team got from Milner and Anderson, but all the same ingredients for success appear to be present. 

At a glance, it might not seem like the Brewers need another lefty arm for next year’s bullpen. In reality, though, they’re likely to head into spring training treating at least two of Robert Gasser, Aaron Ashby and DL Hall as starters; Rob Zastryzny is likely to depart as a free agent; and the team will want to have insurance against an injury to the heavily used Jared Koenig. Peralta isn’t a candidate to take over high-leverage relief work any time soon, but he’s the kind of pitcher the Brewers get right consistently, and he fits nicely into their plans. That said, any free talent pickup in October is a player who might not even survive the offseason on the 40-man roster. The Brewers claimed the southpaw knowing what they’d like to do with him and that they’re likely to need help in the segment of the roster where he would fit. Whether he ends up in camp with the team (either as a prospective big-leaguer or after being snuck through waivers sometime in the next three-plus months) is impossible to predict, but they’ll certainly try to make it happen.