Freddy Peralta has been heavily linked to the New York Yankees recently, and they are currently pursuing his services, according to Bob Klapisch of the Newark Star-Ledger.
The Milwaukee Brewers are no strangers to trading a star-level player on the precipice of free agency, and they just dealt Devin Williams to the Yankees last season. The Brewers also traded Corbin Burnes to the Baltimore Orioles and Josh Hader to the San Diego Padres in years past.
New York recently dealt for Ryan Weathers, but he’s not even in the same stratosphere as Peralta, so should they still be trying to entertain a trade for him?
The Yankees’ current starting rotation, according to Roster Resource, is Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, Weathers, and Luis Gil. Fried and Schlittler are mainstays, but the others can all be moving pieces in my opinion.
Peralta is 29 years old, is only owed $8 million this season, and is coming off a year in which he put up a 2.70 ERA. Peralta has also made at least 30 starts and struck out 200 batters in the last three seasons. He also struck out 28.2% of batters, had a 30.1% whiff rate, and had an elite hard-hit percentage this past season.
Peralta has a four-pitch mix including his four-seam fastball, changeup, curveball, and slider.
The most used pitch in his arsenal is the four-seam fastball. Batters hit the heater at a .209 clip and had a 22.4% whiff rate on it. Peralta allowed 26 extra-base hits on 1,651 fastball pitches.
Peralta’s second most used pitch is his changeup, which came in at a 35.2% whiff rate, a .173 batting average against, and seven extra-base hits allowed in 655 pitches.
The penultimate pitch in Peralta’s repertoire is his curveball. He allowed eight extra-base hits, and batters hit .183 off the bender. Peralta maintained a 34.5% whiff rate on 489 curveball pitches.
Over the last two seasons, Peralta has struggled with his command and barrels. They are baseballs that are absolutely scorched, right on the money, and have at minimum a .500 batting average against them.
In 2024, Peralta was in the 29th percentile with a 9.4% walk rate and was in the 28th percentile in Barrel % at 8.7, according to Baseball Savant.
In 2025, Peralta was in the 30th percentile with a 9.1% walk rate and in the 32nd percentile with a 9.3 Barrel %.
Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, and Clarke Schmidt are currently injured to begin the season for the Yankees. With all due respect to Schlittler, Warren, Weathers, and Gil, they’re all question marks at the end of the day.
You know who’s not a question mark? Peralta. He’s a Top 30 pitcher in the sport since 2023. Peralta is 23rd in fWAR at 8.9, 19th in ERA at 3.40, and 11th in strikeout percentage at 29.8% according to Fangraphs.
Peralta is also 11th in K/9 at 10.71, tied for 19th in expected ERA at 3.53, and 17th in strikeout percentage minus walk percentage rate at 20%.
Fully healthy, New York’s starting rotation would be Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Freddy Peralta, Carlos Rodon, and Cam Schlittler. This would be absolutely ridicolous and give guys coming back from injury ample time to get back to the old them.
The competition between the pitchers would be insane. A couple of guys currently being slated to start would move to the bullpen, while the others can get dangled in a trade.
What would it cost to get someone of Peralta’s caliber, knowing that he’s only a rental? The Brewers’ biggest holes offensively are at shortstop and left field, pertaining to Joey Ortiz and Jake Bauers, respectively. You can never have enough pitching too, even though it seems like Milwaukee pulls pitchers out of thin air and constantly has endless solutions.
This is where someone like the Yankees’ top pitching prospects, Elmer Rodriguez or Carlos Lagrange, would make sense. As they would be cost-effective, they have a ton of control as they’re yet to debut, and would fit well in the Brewers’ pitching lab.
Now that would be a tough pill to swallow for New York. They dealt with this last year with Devin Williams, trading a yet-to-debut player in Caleb Durbin for a rental. Williams departed for the New York Mets earlier this offseason.
On the other hand, the Yankees also made a similar move with Juan Soto. He helped lead them to the World Series the previous year, and then ultimately signed with the Mets as well.
Milwaukee might also be interested in one of the Yankees outfielders, like Jasson Dominguez, who’s one of the most hyped up prospects in recent memory.
Dominguez showed off his elite speed and ability to hit right-handed pitching in 2025. He was, unfortunately, dreadful defensively in left field, which is a tough position in Yankee Stadium, but it was a brutal watch nonetheless. Dominguez was also pretty horrid against left-handed pitching in 2025, so for now, he’s a speedy, strong-side platoon hitter with defensive woes.
The Brewers might instead covet New York’s fourth-ranked prospect, Spencer Jones, who’s a lefty with prodigious power, but some massive swing and miss issues. He also comes with plus speed and defense. Scouts like him at least early on in center field with his gazelle speed at 6’7.
As long as it’s not both Rodriguez and Langrange on top of either Dominguez or Jones, the Yankees should pounce on the Peralta situation.
Unfortunately, they can’t do so currently because they’re still in limbo with Cody Bellinger. New York can’t stomach trading one of their outfielders unless they know if Bellinger’s coming back.
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