The New York Mets are expected to rebuild their starting rotation in the offseason. Even with three young pitchers in Jonah Tong, Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean, the Mets will be adding more experienced starting pitchers.
With a lack of starters the main reason why Carlos Mendoza’s squad missed the playoffs this season, David Stearns and Steve Cohenare going to do all they can to ensure that doesn’t happen again. However, adding starting pitching won’t be easy with almost every team looking to bolster is rotation.
One option for the Mets is to pursue adding a starter through a trade. Even though adding starters in the winter can often result in multiple top prospects being conceded, teams are often willing to make that sacrifice.
Stearns and Cohen have shown multiple times that they are solely focused on winning a World Series, which is why Jim Bowden believes they should pursue Freddy Peralta from the Milwaukee Brewers.
“Peralta is expected to finish in the top three in the NL Cy Young Award voting this offseason,” Bowden wrote for The Athletic. “The Brewers have an $8 million team option on him for next season that they will certainly pick up. However, after picking up that option, the Brewers are expected to do the exact same thing they did two years ago with their then-ace Corbin Burnes and trade him.”
“Peralta is coming off the best year of his career as he’s really figured out how to use and mix his dominant stuff,” Bowden added. “Fastball Freddy held opposing batters to a .209 average against his four-seamer, .173 against his changeup, .183 against his curveball and .157 against his slider. He’s a true top-of-the-rotation ace at age 29. There will be plenty of interest in him on the trade market, with the Red Sox, Orioles, Mets, Angels, Astros, Giants, Padres and Tigers all likely to inquire on him.”
While plenty of teams are expected to pursue Peralta, which will make his price skyrocket on the trade market, that shouldn’t prevent the Mets from trying to acquire him. New York would see its payroll increase by just $8 million despite adding an ace to the pitching staff. Of course, that doesn’t take into the account the cost of losing prospects as the Brewers would likely want at least one of the young pitchers mentioned above.
It makes all the sense in the world for the Mets to add Peralta to their pitching staff. That would also give them extra time to try and lock him down for a multi-year deal to keep him in New York beyond next year.
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