MLB Hot Stove Report: Mets reshape roster with Freddy Peralta, Luis Robert Jr.

While it took some time to light, the hot stove is finally full ablaze. I am here to recap a wild week of moves and provide some analysis for each.

👉 Don’t forget: Keep a close eye on the Rotoworld Player News page so you don’t miss any of the action.

Extreme Mets Makeover

It’s not quite Michael Corleone at the end of Godfather I, but David Stearns has made a number of significant transactions in quick succession to reshape the Mets’ roster in his image.

Over the last few days, he’s swung huge trades for Freddy Peralta and Luis Robert Jr. after signing Bo Bichette to a surprise contract last Friday. That is an incredibly exciting trio of players to bring in this late in an offseason.

Starting with Peralta, he fills the Mets desperate need for a frontline pitcher. Since becoming a full-time starter in 2021, he has a 3.30 ERA and 29.6% strikeout rate. That’s a remarkable level of consistency over nearly 740 regular season innings.

Last year may have marked a true step forward for him too.

‘Fastball Freddy’ was reliant on that fastball as a young pitcher. It received an elite 60-grade by FanGraphs when he was a prospect and carried him to the big leagues.

Once there, it was that fastball and his slider willing him through spurts of brilliance followed by bouts with inconsistency. He bounced between the rotation, bullpen, and minor leagues for three seasons while battling that variability.

Regardless, that fastball was special from the jump.

He took his first leap forward in 2021 after adding a changeup to his repertoire. That new pitch was enough to keep left-handed hitters honest and helped Peralta earn a full-time rotation spot.

Something clicked with the curveball and changeup last season as they became more meaningful parts of his repertoire than before.

Before, he threw his fastball and slider around 85% of the time to right-handed batters. This past season, he flattened the usage of his slider, curve, and change to almost exactly all even around 15% each. The changeup was layered in off his fastball early in counts while hitters were left guessing whether he’d drop the slider or curve when ahead.

Watch him work the fastball and changeup here.

Letting that slider be more of a surprise helped its whiff rate rise to a career best 53.4% too. From the outside, this looked like Peralta further growing into his abilities as a pitcher.

The Mets’ and Brewers’ home parks have a similar park factor and the Mets’ defense will likely be a bit worse than the Brewers’ was, but Peralta may be coming into his own and should still be considered a top-25 or so pitcher entering the year.

Pretty Penny for Peralta

There was a steep price to pay for one guaranteed season of his services though with top prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat going back to Milwaukee.

Williams is a former first round pick and just put up a 156 wRC+ across 96 games in Double-A as a 21-year-old. He’s known for a tremendous eye with a nearly 16% walk rate across all levels as a professional, yet some criticize him for extreme passivity that likely will not play once he reaches the big leagues.

Otherwise, he has much more power than his five-foot, seven-inch frame would indicate and is a capable defender at every up-the-middle position without being necessarily great anywhere either. This is the exact type of high-floor, athletic player the Brewers gravitate towards.

Sproat got his first taste of the big leagues late last season and showed excellent breaking ball quality and feel, just without a swing-and-miss fastball. Again, that’s an archetype the Brewers have found success with as recently as Quinn Priester.

The big difference is Sproat sits around 97 mph. He’s also thrown nearly 260 innings across all levels over the last two seasons, so he’s ready to take on a full major league workload should the Brewers require one.

Both players are considered top-100 prospects on nearly every available ranking and each have pushed their way towards the top-20s at their respective peaks. There’s a good blend of ceiling and floor with this return for the Brewers.

Flying a bit under the radar, the Mets also acquired Tobias Myers as the second piece of this trade. He had a 3.00 ERA across 138 innings in 2024 before working mostly as a reliever last year due to extreme crowding in the Brewers’ rotation.

His release point is one of the highest in the league and that helps him get great vertical action on his fastball. That pitch doesn’t get many swings-and-misses though and is well below average in terms of velocity for right-handed pitchers. Also, his feel for spin is iffy at best due to that extreme over-the-top release.

He has a nice splitter though, prior success in both the rotation and bullpen, and a minor league option. He’ll likely start the year in Triple-A and will be the first arm the Mets call on when they need someone to slot into their rotation.

Big Risk on Robert Jr.?

The day before acquiring Peralta, the Mets made a more risky addition in centerfielder Luis Robert Jr. They sent infielder Luisangel Acuña and Low-A pitcher Truman Pauley to Chicago in exchange and will pay the entirety of Robert’s $20 million contract this season.

Anyone who tells you they know what version of Robert will show up this year is lying.

He looked like one of the most dynamic young players in the league from 2021 to 2023 and peaked with a 38-homer, 20-steal, five-WAR season, but has fallen off a cliff since.

His slash line is .223/.288/.372 over the last two seasons and he’s continued to deal with the same nagging injuries that have always plagued him.

With that being said, he still has all the tools to be a high-end player. Athletically, few others have the same level of bat speed, sprint speed, and defensive prowess.

He can certainly still go out and get it in center field too.

That’s a great place to start and gives him a better floor than his production the last few seasons would indicate.

Also, there are reasons to be bullish on him as a hitter.

He just earned the best walk rate of his career at 9.3% and scored in the 95th percentile of Robert Orr’s SEAGER which evaluates the quality of a hitters’ swing decisions. You don’t even have to squint to still see a premier player here, the hints are directly in front of our face.

Even without dreaming on the ceiling, a player with Robert’s defensive floor is a great fit for this Mets roster.

Defensive specialist Tyrone Taylor was slotted to be the Mets’ everyday center fielder with top prospect Carson Benge in line to challenge for playing time early on.

Taylor had an abysmal .598 OPS last season across 341 plate appearances and the kindest projection system had him slated to still be a well below average hitter this coming year. He’s a great fourth outfielder, but should not be counted on as a regular for a team with playoff aspirations.

As for Benge, this move takes tons of pressure off him. He’s more of a corner outfielder by trade and struggled through the lone month he played at Triple-A last season. Only just drafted in 2024, he could use a bit more seasoning in the upper minors and will likely benefit from not being relied upon immediately for a team with playoff aspirations.

The best part of this trade for the Mets is they didn’t have to give up a ton for Robert’s services. Luisangel Acuña was the big piece going back to Chicago and he profiles as a utility infielder with great defense at second base and fantastic speed. Just without a great hit tool or much power.

That was an easy price to pay for what could be a lightning rod in Robert.

▶ More Hot Stove Quick Hits

◆ The Nationals traded MacKenzie Gore to the Rangers on Thursday for a package that included five prospects.

Gore has sought consistency for his entire major league career because his raw stuff, high velocity from the left side, and ability to induce swings-and-misses at a high rate should have converted into him breaking out by now. Any uptick in his command will let that happen. It’s just hard to bank on it before seeing him sustain it for a full season.

Of the prospects heading back to Washington, recent draftee Gavin Fien appears to be the headliner. He was the 12th overall pick last June and has plus-plus bat speed for a teenager.

◆ In direct response to the Mets’ filling their void in the outfield, the stalemate between Cody Bellinger and the Yankees finally ended on Wednesday with a five-year, $162.5 million contract.

These two sides were simply meant for one another despite the two-way media frenzy trying to push the opposite narrative.

The adjustments Bellinger has made to get his career back on track play perfectly to Yankee Stadium: he makes tons of contact and pulls his fly balls at one of the highest rates in the league. He and the short porch in right field had a great introduction last season and will get to know each other very well over the next few years.

One caveat to this deal, the Yankees’ outfield seems set with Bellinger, Aaron Judge, and Trent Grisham in the fold along with Giancarlo Stanton at designated hitter. Does that make Jasson Domínguez a trade chip? Or will he enter another season on the outside looking in.

◆ Objectively a panic move, the Phillies and JT Realmuto reunited on a three-year, $45 million deal before the ink was dry on Bo Bichette’s shocking deal with the Mets.

Realmuto’s best days are certainly behind him as he enters his age-35 season and just turned in a sub-.700 OPS for the first time since 2015. He’ll offer the Phillies great intangibles though and will likely wind up as a more valuable player in real life than for fantasy baseball.

◆ Bradley Blalock will be freed from the shackles of Coors Field after the Marlins acquired him from the Rockies. He will be a fascinating case study for how much the altitude affects a pitchers’ raw stuff because his pitch movement becomes much, much more interesting outside of Colorado.

◆ The Braves signed Jorge Mateo to potentially be their opening day shortstop in the wake of Ha-Seong Kim’s finger injury. It’s reported that Kim’s recovery time is between four and five months, so Mateo will have plenty of runway to play if he wins the job. And if Mateo is playing, he will be stealing plenty of bases.

◆ Framber Valdez, Eugenio Suárez, and Zac Gallen are likely the next batch of players on the move. The trade market is still hot too. Make sure to keep up the Rotoworld Player News page so you don’t miss any of the action plus live stream and video content here all next week!

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