The only way the Phillies can truly get revenge on the NY Mets for taking Bo Bichette

We wouldn’t call it the Philadelphia Phillies “missing” on Bo Bichette. It’s more like they got their dinner taken off the table by the team they’re built to hate, and then had to sit there while everyone pretended it was just another free-agent loss, to the New York Mets no less.

Dave Dombrowski calling it a “gut punch” is about as close as a front office guy will get to admitting the Mets walked into the room, flipped the vibe, and walked out with the best bat the Phillies thought they were closing on. 

And from the Mets’ side? This is exactly the kind of cold-blooded, big-market move Steve Cohen keeps promising. They needed to win the moment — and they did, landing Bichette on a three-year, $126 million deal that’s basically a supercharged, win-now cannon shot. 

So if you’re Philadelphia and you’re serious about “responding,” you respond with a move that makes the Mets feel it.

There’s really only one kind of play that qualifies: trade for Freddy Peralta.

Freddy Peralta to the Phillies would be a brutal revenge twist after the Mets stole Bo Bichette

This is less about the Phillies needing pitching and more about denying the Mets the next obvious domino.

Once the Mets landed Bichette, the next fanbase daydream is always the same — okay, now go get another October arm. And Peralta is exactly the type of name that starts trending.

He’s also sitting in the perfect trade window: one year left at a ridiculously team-friendly number (an $8 million 2026 salary), which is why his name keeps popping up in rumor cycles in the first place. 

If the Phillies want to turn that “gut punch” into a counterpunch, the cleanest version is: trade for the pitcher everyone assumes the Mets will eventually talk themselves into.

So the real question is if can the Phillies beat the Mets’ offer?

Philadelphia’s rotation picture gives them a very specific kind of leverage: they’re not shopping out of desperation; they’d be shopping out of aggression. Between Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo and Taijuan Walker (with high-end talent looming), the Phillies have enough inventory to construct a trade without collapsing their entire staff. 

That’s what makes this feel like the ultimate sneak attack: the Phillies can make a Peralta deal that’s more about playoff positioning than survival. And if they do it, the headline in Queens isn’t “Mets got Bichette.” It’s “Mets got Bichette… and still watched Philly steal the next move.”

The Mets already won the first round. If the Phillies come back with Peralta, it reframes the whole story.

In a division this petty and this tight, the only revenge that hits is a real move. A trade that makes the Mets look up and realize Philly just made the move they were circling.