An important lesson the NY Mets can learn from the messy Freddy Peralta era

Whether Tarik Skubal is a member of the New York Mets or not next year, it’s clear the team will need to consider a second rotation addition. They can get by with a mix of players they already have. Maybe the best thing of all they can do is to trade for a starting pitcher whose salary isn’t outrageous.

Basically, they’d be redoing what they did with Freddy Peralta last offseason.

Peralta was one of those “perfect match” players for the Mets. He did cost them a pair of top 100 prospects, but his talent, familiarity with David Stearns, and one-year commitment made him a good fit. But before he was pitching below expectations, everyone was talking about a long-term relationship. Immediately after the trade, speculation about how much an extension would cost hit. It’s probably a good thing no deal was ever made. The Mets and Peralta were not a good match.

The Freddy Peralta saga taught the Mets there’s more than baseball talent to consider

Whatever it was that went wrong with Peralta, coaching and playing in New York being two of the most frequently referenced, the point is the Mets miscalculated the pairing with Peralta. He had only ever known one big league previously. Playing for the small market Milwaukee Brewers came with no added pressure. He was often secondary or further down the depth chart than his pitching brethren. In New York, he was meant to be an ace.

The trade and extend idea is unique at least in the immediate. When the Mets traded for Francisco Lindor and extended him before Opening Day, they did something different. It has happened before with one of the other most notable times being after the team traded for Johan Santana.

There isn’t a trade candidate this offseason who’d fit this description quite as well as Lindor or Santana. Even with Lindor, who has acclimated to New York, the question after the first season was whether or not he was cut out for the Big Apple.

The idea that some players cannot play in New York and some can is tough to quantify. Peralta has now performed well in two small market cities on talented teams. Both the Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays also have a knack for developing pitchers well within their system. The Mets, meanwhile, are still trying to figure it out. They were only two years deep into the current regime.

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