Freddy Peralta’s Trade Value Is Cratering and the Mets Have No One to Blame but Themselves

The New York Mets are staring down a brutal reality. They’re in last place. They just fired their manager. They traded David Peterson to the Cubs. And now, with the trade deadline about a month out, the question isn’t whether they’ll sell. It’s whether they have anything worth selling.

Freddy Peralta was supposed to be the answer. Instead, he’s become the problem.

According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, Peralta tops the list of Mets trade chips. But his numbers tell a grim story. The right-hander is 5-7 with a 4.81 ERA in 18 starts. He’s pitched six innings or more in only six of those outings. Eight times he’s failed to get through five frames. That’s not a frontline arm. That’s a guy teams are probably calling about as a depth piece at best.

The Cost of Getting Peralta in the First Place

The Mets gave up Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat to land Peralta last winter. That was a hefty price for a pitcher with one year of control left. The idea was clear: go all in for 2025. But the season unraveled fast, and now the front office has to decide what to do with a guy who’s going to hit free agency in a few months.

Here’s the ugly part. Peralta has to turn things around in a big way just to get the Mets anything decent in return. If he keeps pitching like this, they’d be better off holding onto him and hoping for a compensatory draft pick when he walks. That’s a long fall from the expectations of last offseason.

What the Mets Should Actually Do

Look, the smartest move might be to just ride it out with Peralta. Let him pitch the rest of the season, take the L on the trade, and focus on rebuilding. The Mets have some young talent coming. They’ve got money to spend in free agency. But they can’t afford to trade Peralta for pennies on the dollar just to make a deal happen.

That said, if a contender gets desperate and offers something real for Peralta between now and July 30, Stearns has to listen. Desperate teams do stupid things at the deadline. But the Mets can’t count on that. Not with the way Peralta’s looked this year.

The rotation needs a reset. The bullpen needs help. The lineup has holes. And now the one pitcher who was supposed to be a clear trade asset is looking more like a sunk cost. The Mets dug this hole themselves. The only way out is to stop digging.