Two Freddy Peralta truths for all NY Mets fans to accept

It’s kind of easy to forget how Freddy Peralta was one of the biggest starting pitchers to change teams in the offseason. There weren’t a whole lot of notable free agents and trades were limited. The New York Mets won the sweepstakes. A dozen starts later, how do we feel about it?

The Brandon Sproat-Jett Williams package has looked like a good one to send elsewhere in hopes of landing a frontline starting pitcher. Sproat has struggled in the majors and was called out by his manager for another dud. Williams has hit a snag in Triple-A for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Meanwhile, Mets fans have a chance to dissect Peralta’s first 12 starts carefully. There’s two truths we all need to accept.

Truth: Freddy Peralta has been disappointing

It’s clear Peralta isn’t the ace he was for the Brewers last year. At 3-4 with a 3.55 ERA with 3.8 BB/9 and 9.3 K/9, he hasn’t been the answer we wanted at the front of the rotation.

Most numbers are down (or up depending on how you look at it) from last year. Don’t forget, last season was his career-year. A 2.70 ERA and irrelevant yet notable 17-6 record, the one thing missing from him are the abundance of strikeouts. The 9.3 K/9 rate is the lowest of any season. For a guy who has averaged 11 K/9 in his career, two less per 9 innings feels kind of significant.

The big critique of Peralta, and warning we received, was his inability to go long distances in a game. Explainable because of a higher pitch count due to the fact he’ll strike out batters at such a high rate, we haven’t been treated to the same result as often as Brewers fans were.

Peralta feels like a disappointment because we were expecting last year’s Cy Young contender. In reality, we got the other important truth about his Mets start.

Truth: Freddy Peralta has been exactly what we should’ve expected

With a 3.58 ERA in his career, we’re going to need to re-evaluate what we actually thought Peralta would do for the Mets. He’s slightly better than that. He averaged about 5.3 innings per start in 2025. He’s at 5.5 this year. In baseball terms, that’s not quite an out more per game but close enough to call it even.

The point is that Peralta has been exactly what we should have actually anticipated he would be.

Perhaps it’s an issue that goes beyond him and more perception. The Mets are only 6-6 when he starts games. They’ve scored double-digits in his outings 3 times and are coming off a game where they scored 9 with an extra-inning win. There has yet to be a game where the Mets won because of Peralta. Four of the games included extra innings. Four of them included 2 or fewer runs scored by the Mets offense.

The 2026 saga with Peralta can change with a win in a pitcher’s duel on Wednesday to close out the series vs. the Seattle Mariners. No truly ugly outing and also no memorable one for positive reasons either, this 6 innings of 2-hit ball or a 10 K game can alter our feelings from the truth that this is who he is.

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