A true yet unfair way to judge the NY Mets trade for Freddy Peralta

Met with mostly praise and a little criticism as an overpay (which trade isn’t?), the New York Mets paid a hefty price to land Freddy Peralta. The deal had ESPN swapping them and the Milwaukee Brewers from number one to six (Mets moving down) on their preseason farm system rankings.

It’s essentially a one-year deal right now, renting a stud starter for a season. No jury is going to convict or acquit for a couple of years and like the case is for every trade, something needs to be clarified about the rules of who wins the deal.

True: If Freddy Peralta is a rental, they need to win the World Series with him

You paid that for a rental? It’s what a lot of people were saying when their spouse was still going to Blockbuster and they were getting DVDs in the mail from Netflix. Can you believe it was costing a minimum $4 to rent a single movie back in the day? You could get unlimited DVDs mailed to you for about $10 in those early Netflix days. No wonder the dinosaurs went extinct.

Overpaying for a rental is perception. Yes, the Mets paid a lot. The only way they can truly win the trade with the Brewers is if it ends in a parade.

Even if the Mets were to extend Peralta or re-sign him in the offseason, it’s a whole new deal. An asterisk can be added if the Mets don’t win in 2026 but re-sign Peralta in part because they “got a headstart on negotiations” and win it all in 2027. Does it mean they win the trade? It kind of depends on what Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat do.

Unfair: They can only win the trade if they win the World Series with him

It’s going to sound very Andy Martino of me to say, but winning a trade isn’t always about winning a World Series. Yes, that’s the goal. It’s unfair to call a trade a failure if the Mets aren’t raising a banner with Peralta receiving a ring as a visiting player in 2027 (in case he is one and done).

If the take is you need to win a championship to win a trade, most trades are meaningless. The Mets gave up Williams and Sproat who could very well end up as great Brewers players.

We don’t say there was no winner in the Jim Fregosi-Nolan Ryan trade because neither ball club won a championship with the players they added. The California Angels were the winners or maybe you just want to call the Mets the losers. In either case, it’s not World Series or bust. Every part of a trade needs to play out. The Mets can win the trade, or at least be applauded, for being bold enough to subtract two prospects they no longer seemed to have much room for.

It’s true, winning is everything and if you don’t achieve that goal, what else matters?

It’s an unfair standard because you’re probably not going to win.