Freddy Peralta’s first start since NY Mets trade doesn’t deserve an asterisk

Annihilated. Hammered. Taken to school. Why is that one up there? Whichever adjective or phrase you’d like to use, Freddy Peralta in his first start with the Tampa Bay Rays post-New York Mets trade was bad. Lasting 3.2 innings and surrendering 9 hits, 7 runs, and a pair of long balls, the Colorado Rockies excuse doesn’t fly here.

Nobody should have expected Peralta to be perfect or anything close to the Milwaukee Brewers version of himself in this outing. However, if you’ll recall, he managed to handle things in Denver earlier this year with the Mets.

On May 6, as Mets fans were pleading to the baseball gods to save the season, Peralta spun 5 shutout innings of 2-hit ball against the Rockies on their home grass. He did so with a lot of contact, striking out only one batter. What happened here?

Freddy Peralta was lousy for the Mets, but managed to handle the Rockies well twice already this year

In addition to the Coors Field start, Peralta had an April appearance where he went 5.2 and allowed 3 runs to the Rockies. This game, at Citi Field, included 8 strikeouts. It was an out shy of the weakest of quality outings, but no less an acceptable outing and more so based on how the season would trend for him.

Corbin Young of RotoGraphs and YahooFantasy noted how much the Denver air affected some of his pitches.

“Peralta lost 3 inches of induced vertical break on his four-seamer, which makes sense since he was pitching in Colorado. Opposing hitters were crushing the heater, given a 98.1 mph average exit velocity on Tuesday. 

The changeup and curveball lost 2-3 inches of downward movement on Thursday. That likely led to command issues in a different environment on the road.”

The outing was Peralta’s shortest since his abomination in Philadelphia. He was efficient enough with pitches, getting to 71. On a better day, he could have gone his traditional 5.

Six other Rays pitchers took the mound, none allowing a run to score in the 11-inning victory for Tampa Bay. The air, or weather in general, isn't fully to blame.

If there was ever a thought that the spotlight of New York was a cause of Peralta’s misfortune, this outing puts a jar in the token against that argument. It doesn’t get much quieter in the playoff hunt than the Rays and to make your debut in Colorado hides the onslaught of coverage other than the loyal fans who show up for the experience, not the score.

The Rays haven’t had the time to work their magic on Peralta quite yet nor is it a guarantee he just needed some secrets whispered into his ear. A successful Tampa Bay stint will further the narrative that the Mets messed up Peralta. An equally bad conclusion and it becomes clear the player’s failure is squarely on him. There is no better place for it to happen than Tampa Bay where the reputation sometimes gets a little overblown for being geniuses.

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