{"id":529099,"date":"2026-01-20T13:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/529099\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T13:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:58:21","slug":"who-might-headline-the-return-in-a-freddy-peralta-trade-brewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/529099\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Might Headline the Return in a Freddy Peralta Trade? – Brewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs we reported at Brewer Fanatic earlier this month, the Brewers are focused on landing controllable starting pitching<\/a> in return for Freddy Peralta<\/a>. The impending free agent has attracted a vast number of suitors, due to his paltry $8-million salary in 2026 and off the back of his third straight 200-strikeout season. Last year, he recorded a 2.70 ERA and 5.5 bWAR.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPeralta’s consistency\u2014his on-field performance and his off-field leadership\u2014mean that the price will be high, but who are the names being thrown around by his most commonly linked suitors?\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBrandon Sproat<\/a> – RHP, New York Mets, #87 Just Baseball Prospect
Perhaps the most commonly linked name from the Mets system, Sproat was a helium prospect entering 2025. He endured some struggles before finding his groove at the end of the year in Triple A, but eventually got a cup of coffee in the majors. Sproat had a 4.79 ERA in just over 20 innings for the parent club, but that came with a FIP of just 2.80, showing solid potential to miss barrels.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tComing out of a low three-quarters slot, Sproat’s high-velocity four-seam fastball ran into problems with poor shape, and he’s since morphed into a sinker-dominant, ground-ball pitcher. His best offering is his 85-mph slider, using seam-shifted wake. His low arm angle compensates for some struggles with spinning the baseball, and his results ticked up in the second half of the season.\n<\/p>\n

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\n\tHis main issue is the lack of fastball whiffs, but a solid array of pitches behind the sinker\u2014all of which performed well in Triple A\u2014forms a deceptive mix, blending the slider, sweeper, changeup and a curveball to create an arsenal that’s tough to pick up and tough to square up.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHe might not rack up strikeouts at a high level, and as a ground ball-oriented pitcher, his ceiling would therefore be lower than Peralta’s. However, he’s controllable through at least 2031, and the Brewers can make the most of that profile with their infield defense.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tJonah Tong<\/a> – RHP, New York Mets, #37 Just Baseball Prospect
Jonah Tong is another high-profile arm in the Mets system, with a uniquely intense delivery and arsenal. Tong would, by consensus, be preferred across most outlets to Sproat, with a higher ceiling and better command of his arsenal despite larger struggles once he reached the Mets rotation. Tong had a 7.71 ERA in 18 2\/3 innings, but he did show a far better whiff rate, and his unique profile is certainly fascinating to a Brewers rotation without a lot of quality off-speed pitches to boast.\n<\/p>\n

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\n\tTong’s arsenal grades out exceptionally well from a deception and stuff perspective. His release point is almost identical for each of his pitches, as you can see from the icon in the top left, while his whiff rates in a short sample at Triple A were impressive on both the fastball and changeup. His delivery, meanwhile, evokes Tim Lincecum<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

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\tTong only throws one fastball, but it is of a far higher quality than Sproat’s, and his changeup increases its effectiveness even further as the two pitches blend well before separating late. As with Brewers prospect Logan Henderson<\/a>, Tong’s slider and curveball could use some refining, but if he can develop a true third pitch\u2014especially a genuine out pitch to right-handers, to whom the slider proved ineffective in the early returns\u2014the sky is the limit for Tong.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOver-the-top deliveries can make it difficult to generate lateral movement, and the Brewers might be wary of Tong’s effectiveness against same-handed hitters, unless Chris Hook<\/a> sees something with which he can work. If the Brewers landed Tong instead of Sproat, any supplemental pieces would likely be lower-level.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPeyton Tolle – LHP, Boston Red Sox, #33 Just Baseball Prospect
Perhaps the best prospect on this list, Tolle ticks a lot of boxes for the Milwaukee Brewers. He averages just under 96 mph from the left side, combining a low arm slot with above-average induced vertical break and almost 7.5 feet of extension, meaning his fastball plays extremely well.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tTolle also possesses a 90-mph cutter that he uses to keep hitters off his fastball, and almost 70% of his pitches are one of those two offerings. When he wants to switch things up, Tolle has a slider, a curveball and a changeup, all of which look solid from a Stuff+ standpoint\u2014although the release points aren’t identical. Tolle has almost 10\u00b0 of arm angle difference between his cutter\/changeup combo and the fastball\/curveball combination, and that might have implications down the line\n<\/p>\n

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\n\tAnother exceptional part of Tolle’s game is his command. He walked just 3.4% of hitters in his short time in Triple A, despite the tighter strike zone from the ABS challenge system. He has plus stuff and plus command. If he can link the arsenal together a little further, Tolle could be a star. As such, the Red Sox will be in no hurry to trade him away.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tJR Ritchie<\/a> – RHP, Atlanta Braves, Just Baseball #94 Prospect
Ritchie is probably the least exciting of the names listed here. His fastballs don’t grade out particularly strongly, especially when the full arsenal is categorized correctly. (As with many pitchers with large arsenals, Statcast can struggle to decipher which pitch is which.)\n<\/p>\n

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\n\tThrowing a four-seamer, sinker and cutter, Ritchie is an effective kitchen-sink operator on the mound. In his slider and curveball, he boasts two solid breaking pitches to which to turn to prevent hitters from sitting on his heater. He has a low arm slot, with consistent release points that really allow it to play up. The four-seamer, especially, can get whiffs at the top of the zone, but it can also find the barrel if he misses his spots.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tRitchie pitched 140 innings in 2025, with a combined 2.64 ERA, including a 3.02 ERA at Triple A. However, his peripherals don’t stack up quite so nicely, with a 4.15 FIP at the highest level of the minor leagues and a double-digit walk rate creeping in at both Double A and Triple A. This certainly creates some concern for the profile without the gaudy strikeout numbers to offset those walks, and a 14-percentage point difference between his strikeout and walk rates is nothing to shout about.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tRitchie may have tired as the season went on, having thrown just 49 innings in 2024 and really stretching himself in 2025. He’s a high-floor arm more likely to fit the back end than the front end of a rotation, but he does have good feel to spin the ball and has developed a strong arsenal of pitches moving in a variety of different directions. The further he got from Tommy John<\/a> surgery, the better his stuff got.\n<\/p>\n

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\n\tEmmet Sheehan<\/a> – RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers – Not prospect eligible
I’m sure many would throw up at the thought of the Dodgers becoming even more of a behemoth in 2026, but it’s futile to ignore the suitability of their controllable MLB arms. River Ryan<\/a> has a high-velocity fastball (with poor shape) but failed to get much swing-and-miss at the major-league level, albeit with excellent secondaries. Gavin Stone<\/a> used the kitchen-sink approach to limit barrels well in 2024, before injury struck.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, if the Brewers really wanted to push the Dodgers, they could demand a one-for-one trade of Emmett Sheehan for Peralta. Sheehan had an electric 2025, but in a fully healthy rotation, it’s difficult to see him finding an everyday position among the Dodgers’ big-money signings.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

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\n\tFrom a low three-quarters slot, Sheehan has phenomenal riding life on his fastball, with high induced vertical break for his release point and one of the flattest vertical approach angles in baseball. Averaging almost 96 mph, it may be one of the most underrated pitches in the game, while his tight gyro slider, two-plane curveball and changeup are all plus pitches.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Brewers are loath to do one-for-one deals, and prefer to spread their risk more in any return. If the opportunity of a challenge trade opened up in this case, however, they would have to seriously consider what they could manage with five more years of control of a potentially elite arm.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, Which Pitcher Should Get You Most Excited?
Of the listed top-100 prospects and major league-ready arms the Brewers might be able to chase down, Tolle would be the most exciting. His command of the strike zone and above-average stuff are exciting and there is further development to dream on.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWould any of these pitchers pique your interest in a Peralta deal? Which would you trade for, if all were on the table? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we reported at Brewer Fanatic earlier this month, the Brewers are focused on landing controllable starting pitching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[5,6303,136,9924,753,12950,28293,843,59,4280,4,3973],"class_list":["post-529099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milwaukee-brewers","tag-baseball","tag-brandon-sproat","tag-brewers","tag-emmett-sheehan","tag-freddy-peralta","tag-jonah-tong","tag-jr-ritchie","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-milwaukeebrewers","tag-mlb","tag-payton-tolle"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115927785431858756","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}