{"id":533577,"date":"2026-01-23T00:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/533577\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T00:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:58:13","slug":"mets-patience-results-in-late-night-deal-to-acquire-freddy-peralta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/533577\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets’ patience results in late-night deal to acquire Freddy Peralta"},"content":{"rendered":"

A trade for a one-year rotation rental<\/a> might not typically be one of the moves that has fans asking, \u201cWhere were you when?\u201d But for David and Whitney Stearns, their ninth anniversary will be one they never forget.<\/p>\n

A wild week for the Mets culminated in the addition of another frontline starter in right-hander Freddy Peralta on Wednesday night, and the interruption of Stearns\u2019 anniversary dinner with his wife. The Mets\u2019 president of baseball operations pulled off yet another late-night stunner when he acquired Peralta and right-hander Tobias Myers from the Milwaukee Brewers, in exchange for right-hander Brandon Sproat and infielder\/outfielder Jett Williams.<\/p>\n

Matt Arnold, the executive who worked underneath Stearns with the Brewers, jokingly apologized for ruining dinner when speaking about the trade Thursday afternoon to reporters in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt was at my wedding nine years ago, so Matt certainly knows that that was my anniversary,\u201d Stearns said on a Zoom call Thursday. \u201cWe had some conversations at dinner, and then were able to wrap up the trade once we got home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dinner might have been ruined, but this certainly was not any sort of ruinous trade for either team. In fact, it\u2019s a move that is already being widely celebrated by Mets fans. While it undoubtedly stings for Brewers fans, Sproat gives them a rotation piece to build around.<\/p>\n

The Mets wanted more of an impact at the top of the rotation. Peralta, who finished fifth in Cy Young Award voting last season after going 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA in 33 starts, provides that. Stearns knows him better than most, having traded for him once already in Milwaukee, and signed him to an extension in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is someone who, first and foremost, is a really good person. He meshes well with his teammates and with his organization. He\u2019s emerged as a really quality leader in the clubhouse with the Brewers,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cHe\u2019s constantly getting better, and I had a front row seat for that during his development. During his first few years at the major league level, he was never satisfied.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to get better, and he\u2019s been able to get about as much out of his ability as any player can. That\u2019s been fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stearns declined to comment on whether or not the Mets plan to offer Peralta an extension, saying he wants the pitcher to get settled into his new surroundings before discussing his future.<\/p>\n

With only one year left on Peralta\u2019s contract, the Mets wanted to make sure they weren\u2019t sacrificing the future of their rotation by giving up Sproat, whose rookie eligibility is still intact. A 24-year-old out of the University of Florida, Sproat is an exciting young prospect who impressed during a four-game big league stint last September, posting a 4.79 ERA over four starts.<\/p>\n

He carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning in Cincinnati in his MLB debut<\/a>, and was penciled into the Mets\u2019 rotation for the 2025 season. If the Mets were going to give up a pitcher ready to help them win now and in the future, they needed to make sure they were getting another arm back in addition to Peralta.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we recognize that we\u2019ve partnered with some very good young players here \u2014 players who are going to have good major league careers \u2014 and that\u2019s part of it when you\u2019re acquiring a very good player in return,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cBrandon is going to be a good player. [It was] very tough for us to give him up and, and I do not think we would have given him up in a deal where there was not a starting pitcher coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Myers, a 27-year-old swingman. He nearly helped the Brewers end the Mets\u2019 season in 2024, throwing five scoreless innings with only two hits and five strikeouts in Game 3 of the NL Card Series. Myers is still under team control, and with experience as a starter and a reliever, he fills another need for the Mets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at him, he fills up the zone and he goes right after people,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cHe can zone up pretty much his entire arsenal. He\u2019s not afraid. He\u2019s pitched well in very big moments, as we saw firsthand a couple of years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last week alone, the Mets went from also-rans by once again missing out on a top player who went to the Los Angeles Dodgers, to filling out the rest of their roster with top talent. They signed Bo Bichette to play third base<\/a>, traded for center fielder Luis Robert, and now have a top-of-rotation starter to stabilize the rotation, and another useful arm who can play a variety of roles. Patience was required for the Mets this winter, but in the end, it might have paid off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trade for a one-year rotation rental might not typically be one of the moves that has fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2401],"tags":[5,136,9411,753,101,843,59,4280,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-533577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-brewers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brewers","10":"tag-david-stearns","11":"tag-freddy-peralta","12":"tag-mets","13":"tag-milwaukee","14":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","15":"tag-milwaukeebrewers","16":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533577","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=533577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}