Brewers fan favorite Brandon Woodruff might’ve unintentionally helped the NY Mets

The qualifying offer decisions were made at 4pm EST on Tuesday with four players accepting. Edwin Diaz, as we already knew, decided to reject the $22+ million one-year offer and head into free agency where the New York Mets will try to bid to retain him.

Over in Milwaukee, the Brewers were notified that Brandon Woodruff accepted the deal. The longtime Milwaukee fan favorite will be back for another year, earning a slight raise from the $20 million he originally had in his contract.

What does this have to do with the Mets? Woodruff was probably not a realistic candidate to sign because of the qualifying offer penalties they would have endured. However, as part of Jeff Passan’s mammoth story published early in the day, it might mean the Brewers are more motivated to trade Freddy Peralta.

It seems like Freddy Peralta is more available than ever for the Mets to strike a deal

As Owen Jonas of Reviewing the Brew went into depth on, Brewers fans were both hoping their beloved “Woody” would stay while also dreading the thought of Peralta getting traded. A successful pair of Brewers who’ve been a part of some of the best baseball in recent seasons, first led by David Stearns, it’ll be a shame for it to come down to a choice between the two. In particular, with Peralta only making $8 million next season, it seems like a very Wilponian decision to ultimately trade your ace because another player is coming back at what could be a reasonable offer.

The connection between Stearns and Peralta is difficult to ignore. Passan agreed in a different regard, noting how the Mets are eyeing Devin Williams to become the perfect setup man in front of Diaz in 2026. We’re a long way from any of this happening. However, it does seem like the idea is Stearns could approach this offseason while trying to build his own Velvet Revolver with a mix of Mets and players he knew from his Brewers days.

Peralta should be in high demand this offseason with many of the starting pitchers available carrying QO penalties. Led by Framber Valdez and Dylan Cease, it’s not a can’t miss class of pitchers. One could argue Peralta is better than any of them.

Don’t let Brewers management know, but having two really good pitchers like Peralta and Woodruff combining to make around $30 million next year is a bargain. For our sake, we hope Passan’s intel is correct and the return of Woodruff to Milwaukee is all the Brewers need to make themselves officially open for business on trading Peralta.