Article: Freddy Peralta Represents Red Sox's Best Chance To Add Garrett Crochet's Co-Ace This Offseason

[Brandon Glick]

Following Garrett Crochet's domination of a perplexed and overwhelmed New York Yankees lineup in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card series, the Boston Red Sox needed just one more good start to get into the ALDS and guarantee a home playoff game at Fenway Park.

Then, Brayan Bello collapsed, failing to get out of the third inning in Game 2 as Alex Cora yanked him after just 28 pitches. Connelly Early dazzled to start the decisive Game 3, but one bad inning for the southpaw was all the Yankees needed behind rookie sensation Cam Schlittler to send the Red Sox home early. A much-maligned rotation proved to be Boston's downfall, leaving the front office with a lot of questions to answer.

Now, not all of the blame falls on the roster construction here. Lucas Giolito was the team's No. 3 starter all year long before suffering an elbow injury in September that prematurely ended his season. Dustin May was acquired at the deadline as a high-upside dart throw, but underperformance and injuries rendered his Red Sox tenure unremarkable. Tanner Houck was billed as the No. 2 starter on Opening Day following his All-Star turn in 2024, but his performance on the mound was cataclysmic before an arm injury mercifully ended his season. The same fate also befell Richard Fitts, Hunter Dobbins, Kutter Crawford, and to the extent that he did not return from his preexisting injury in time, Patrick Sandoval.

That's a lot of injuries on the pitching side of things, and very few teams have the depth to remain afloat amidst such a flood of misfortune. The team's depth will have to be addressed to some extent this offseason, but that the Red Sox were able to make the postseason at all is a testament to the depth they already have.

Instead, what really demands the front office's attention this winter is that spot between Crochet and Bello atop the rotation. As great as the latter was in 2025, he's clearly punching above his weight as a No. 2, at least right now. Houck was meant to occupy that role, but even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Simply put, there's an ace-sized opening in the rotation, and Crochet needs his right-hand(ed) man now more than ever.

Such pitchers rarely hit the free-agent waters, and this offseason is no different. Dylan Cease, Framber Valdez, Michael King, and Shane Bieber represent the cream of the crop, and each comes loaded with their own questions (not to mention that some will be attached to the qualifying offer). In the second tier of available starters, you'll find recognizable names like Ranger Suárez, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, and (potentially) Jack Flaherty, though none are sure to be better than Bello in 2026, who will be far cheaper than any of his free-agent counterparts.

Thus, the trade market will soak up the bulk of the attention of teams looking for aces this winter, and does it ever deliver. Tarik Skubal—the soon-to-be two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award champion—of the Detroit Tigers is rumored to be available, mostly thanks to a jaw-dropping chasm between the money he seeks and the money the Tigers are offering in negotiations. Hunter Greene joins him in the rumor mill, armed with both a triple-digit fastball and three years of cheap team control, plus a $21 million option in 2029.

Those résumés are impressive—perhaps too impressive for the Red Sox. Both pitchers are on the shortlist of the best starting pitchers in MLB, and thus, will cost an eye-watering amount of talent via trade. Skubal will also cost hundreds of millions of dollars via an extension.

That won't necessarily scare Boston off; they performed the exact same trade-and-extend maneuver with Crochet one year ago. But that deal with the Chicago White Sox depleted their farm system coffers a good amount, and Crochet now soaks up the largest luxury tax space on the team sans Alex Bregman. It may be feasible, but it may not be wise to further torch the farm system and cap sheet for another elite starter.

This excessively long preamble is all here (there was more before a few rounds of edits) to inform you, dear reader, as to why Freddy Peralta is the ideal starter for the Red Sox to target in a trade this winter. Like Skubal and Greene, the Milwaukee Brewers' No. 1 starter is rumored to be available, and despite his own laundry list of accomplishments, he'll cost scraps compared to the other two aces.

Peralta isn't quite the same caliber of pitcher as Skubal, but his track record is undeniable. He's thrown at least 165.0 innings in each of the past three seasons, and his ERA hasn't climbed above 4.00 since 2019. The 2025 campaign was the best of his career, as the 29-year-old recorded a 2.70 ERA in 176 2/3 innings, good for 3.6 fWAR. He's one of the best pitchers in baseball at "pitching backwards", as all three of his non-fastball offerings (changeup, curveball, slider) yielded a wOBA below .250 from opposing hitters in 2025. His postseason pedigree is also impressive, as Peralta has a 4.32 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in 33 1/3 playoff innings.

We could stop there, but I want to highlight something Peralta excels at that the Red Sox have valued quite highly under Andrew Bailey and Craig Breslow: pitch-tunneling. The concept is basic enough on the surface—a pitcher tries to hide the type of offering he's throwing as long as possible, while heaps of late movement force batters to adjust their eye level as the pitch travels to the plate. In practice, it's a very difficult skill for a pitcher to learn, and it's why Peralta has become so effective in the pitching factory in Milwaukee.

For an example, look at Brayan Bello's movement profile between 2023 (his first full season in the majors) and 2025. There has been a very real and very conscious effort to get his pitches to differentiate in terms of movement, primarily achieved through more rise on his four-seamer and the introduction of a cutter in place of his flat slider.

Peralta is one of the kings of this concept. Beyond his ability to change speeds—each of his pitches has a roughly 5.0 mph difference separating it and the next closest offering in his arsenal—Peralta excels at keeping his pitches in a tight cluster. His movement is reliable and repetitive, and each pitch is so different from the next that hitters are frequently forced to guess at what he's throwing as he's throwing it.

You can be sure that the Red Sox already know this about the right-hander, and you can be sure that it's a reason they'll try hard this winter to get Peralta into their building. There's some tweaks to be made—his four-seamer was hit around at times in 2025, perhaps due to its gargantuan usage rate—but Peralta is as much of a "finished product" as you'll find in a starting pitcher around the league. He's got a diverse arsenal that he not only uses well, but knows well. You can sort of think of it like an esteemed golfer who knows his yardage amounts to the exact number. Peralta's ability to avoid prolonged cold stretches on the mound is a direct result into the work he's put into learning and growing his game.

Skubal has the reputation, accolades, and now the postseason success to put to bed any questions about his status as the best pitcher in baseball, save for maybe Paul Skenes. Greene has the velocity and flair to paralyze batters and electrify crowds, and his team control would make him an asset for years to come. Then, there's Peralta, who has neither the Cy Young awards nor the team-friendly salaries (he's a free agent after 2026) to justify a farm-system-depleting blockbuster trade. And yet, his talent and pedigree is unquestionable, which makes one question why the Red Sox wouldn't prioritize adding him this winter.

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[moonslav59]

 He'd be a nice get.

Best ERA- since 2024

3. Tarik Skubal

4. Cris Sale 59

8. Hunter Greene 63

10. Chris Sanchez 68

13. Corbin Burnes 71

(Crochet at #16)

22. M King 76

27. Peralta 78

30. R Suarez 79

31. Giolito 80

32. Imanaga 80

35. F Valdez 82

45. J Ryan 85

53. M Kelly 89

56. Lodolo & Singer 90

61. Littell 92 (Bello at 93)

 

 

[JoeBrady]

Not overly keen on a FB pitcher, in Fenway, with only one year of control.  If he's cheap, sure, but I doubt he'll be cheap.

[notin]

Milwaukee has an $8mill team option and is coming off a season in which they made the NLCS.  Is Peralta even available?  
 

 

[drewski6]

3 hours ago, notin said:

Milwaukee has an $8mill team option and is coming off a season in which they made the NLCS.  Is Peralta even available?  
 

 

Keep dreaming, keep keep dreaming. For goodness sake.  No, Peralta is not available.  And probably neither is Greene.  Aces on playoff teams are not available!

[mvp 78]

Ohtani for Duran, Bello and Campbell

[notin]

9 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Ohtani for Duran, Bello and Campbell

Is Ohtani really a #2 starter?

14 starts and 47 IP? We need someone either a bit more durability, dude…

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, notin said:

Is Ohtani really a #2 starter?

14 starts and 47 IP? We need someone either a bit more durability, dude…

He can DH a little bit too though. Figured it'd offset his limitations as a pitcher. 🫠

[mvp 78]

Fine

Hicks, Masa, Arias, Garcia, Clarke, Romero, Sandlin, Paez, Monegro, Mullins

for 

Ohtani (replaces Hicks and Masa)

[mvp 78]

I'll add Matt McShane to the deal just to sweeten the pot if I really have to. 

[drewski6]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I'll add Matt McShane to the deal just to sweeten the pot if I really have to. 

Im keeping ian mcshane though. Al Swearingen.

[notin]

5 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I'll add Matt McShane to the deal just to sweeten the pot if I really have to. 

THE Matt McShane?

Or just some random Matt McShane you met at a pub?

[TedYazPapiMookie]

Breslow has so few moves to make this off season he must get the one big move right.

He missed on Sale and Priester so we have to be worried but he hit on Crochet and Bregman so he's got about a 50/50 chance of making a good trade or acquisition.

His needs:

1 - A new 3B that can field and hit since Mayer is both untested (except for a few total chances at 3B in 2025) on defense and his hitting was not good enough to be a starter.  We take a big step back with Mayer at 3B.

2 - A right-handed starting pitcher who slots in behind Crochet and in front of Early.

Trade resources to be used to fill the two slots are defined by those left over after the following starters:

Outfield of Anthony, Duran and Rafaela

SS - Story

DH - Yoshida

Trade Resources:

3B - Mayer (overrated due to injuries and bad minor league defense.  Upside, if he can actually stay healthy and play like he did in his small sample in 2025)

2B - Campbell (showed his upside in April and his downside after that.  Underlying injury or simply inability to adjust to his first adversity in his career undermined his season.  No loss of talent but something caused the massive drop to a guy who had never failed at baseball)

1B - Casas (mixed reviews on his career so far.  High ceiling but needs to stay healthy and play defense)

C - Narvaez (another one-year wonder like Wong so trade him while he has value or keep him as a back-up and dump Wong)

OTHERS - The team is filled with overperforming AAA type players including:

Gonzalez, Hamilton, Eaton, Grissom, Sogard, Abreu and Refsnyder.

Minor League Prospects that are tradeable:

Arias, Garcia, Gonzales, Romero, Soto, Bleis, Cespedes, Taylor

Hang on to all the pitchers since it's traditionally a weakness of the farm system.

At SP2, I suggest Bieber.  Big game experience.  Back from TJ and looking great.  Cheapest of the outstanding Right Handed starting pitchers.

Would it be worthwhile to seek Greene?  Yes because he's young and a top 5 SP in baseball and not many teams have two in the top 5 except LAD.

At 3B, I would hold off on offering anyone money because I believe Bregman will find out his value is far less than he and his agent believe.  His true value is probably around $25 Million at best.  Look at his numbers over the last several years and he had an injury shortened career year in 2025. 

He's a .260 hitter with an OBP of roughly .350, a SLG of .450 and an OPS of .800.  He steals NO bases.  He's good but not great.  He can carry a team for a short time, and he can have severe slumps.  He's great in the clubhouse but in the end he's aging and for him to expect $40 Million for multiple years is crazy.  I get that he wants to test the waters but it seems highly unlikely he'll get a deal as good as he had with Boston.  I believe he's hoping for LAD to land him and I would hope his agent has had a handshake deal for him to go to LAD to get him to opt out in BOS.  Waiting on Bregman could get you a discounted Bregman.

Breslow is in the best position by far that he's been in since coming to Boston and is better off than Bloom ever was after he dumped Mookie.  Lots of optimism for 2026.  Let's hope we get the #2 SP, the 3B that was here in 2025 and an upgrade at Catcher like Realmuto.  After that the rest is minor fine tuning.

[TedYazPapiMookie]

7 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

Not overly keen on a FB pitcher, in Fenway, with only one year of control.  If he's cheap, sure, but I doubt he'll be cheap.

Joe, if not a stud like Greene, I suggest an experienced veteran like Bieber.  No worries of TJ, playoff experienced, older so contract doesn't need to be long and historically reliable and effective.  The window to win is now and the next few years.

[mvp 78]

17 hours ago, notin said:

THE Matt McShane?

Or just some random Matt McShane you met at a pub?

Would never give up any guy who bought me a round. 

[notin]

16 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

 

Would it be worthwhile to seek Greene?  Yes because he's young and a top 5 SP in baseball and not many teams have two in the top 5 except LAD.

 

Exactly how many pitchers are in the Top 5?

Greene, Crochet, 2 Dodgers, and I’m assuming the last guy is named Skenes Skubal Sanchez? 

[notin]

37 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Would never give up any guy who bought me a round. 

You drank a whole round?

[notin]

18 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Im keeping ian mcshane though. Al Swearingen.

More Game of Thrones references? 
 

When do we suggest Sandor Clegane as our new RHH power bat?

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, notin said:

More Game of Thrones references? 
 

When do we suggest Sandor Clegane as our new RHH power bat?

You know the Hound ain't swingin' left handed with that mug of his. 

Not sure he's a good clubhouse guy though and probably bad with the media. 

"Bugger this, bugger that, bugger you."

Internal metrics probably grade Tyene Sand really high TBH. 

[drewski6]

20 minutes ago, notin said:

More Game of Thrones references? 
 

When do we suggest Sandor Clegane as our new RHH power bat?

deadwood.

[drewski6]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Would never give up any guy who bought me a round. 

I was once offered a beer by manny del carmens brother, eddie del carmen. we both bonded over how much we loved cocoa crisp. He told me that hes never gotten even a whiff of snootiness from cocoa about how cocoa is a ballplayer and eddie is a ballplayer brother. He said that cocoa is the humblest dude on the team and loved by literally every single peson he ever met.

I asked if cocoa could join us, and he only promised that hed ask but it was a red sox/yankee game so he told me to temper my expectations cuz the game could go on late, or the team could be partying themselves if they won, but he said hed try to get cocoa to join us.

The game went to like 15 innings and it ruined the plan.  I did meet Luis Tiant at a hibachi restaurant in mass though. He pulled out a signed picture of himself and gave it to me. But i gave it to my uncle because that was his era and before mine and he wanted it more.

[drewski6]

30 minutes ago, notin said:

You drank a whole round?

your jokes arent bad, but your joke filter is bad.

[drewski6]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

You know the Hound ain't swingin' left handed with that mug of his. 

Not sure he's a good clubhouse guy though and probably bad with the media. 

"Bugger this, bugger that, bugger you."

Internal metrics probably grade Tyene Sand really high TBH. 

He would have been a better fit on the chicken and beer teams. Singing drinking songs with his arm over lackeys shoulder.  Fun team. Maybe not a very focused team. But a fun time.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

your jokes arent bad, but your joke filter is bad.

notin has the true poster's spirit. Once he starts typing, he has to hit "submit reply" no matter how it comes out. Sometimes I even decide a post isn't worth it and I've been putting up the most numbers every quarter or whatever. 🫠

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

He would have been a better fit on the chicken and beer teams. Singing drinking songs with his arm over lackeys shoulder.  Fun team. Maybe not a very focused team. But a fun time.

That team won right after they got rid of some of the malcontents (AGon who complained about playing late before travel days). I'm not worried about the video games. Every MLB guy is a gamer and they talk about it on the broadcast. Giolito famously gets ready for his starts by playing MLB the Show. I can only imagine what the Globe would have said about that back then...

[drewski6]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

notin has the true poster's spirit. Once he starts typing, he has to hit "submit reply" no matter how it comes out. Sometimes I even decide a post isn't worth it and I've been putting up the most numbers every quarter or whatever. 🫠

The only bad statement is the one you left in the drafts

[notin]

13 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

You know the Hound ain't swingin' left handed with that mug of his. 

Not sure he's a good clubhouse guy though and probably bad with the media. 

"Bugger this, bugger that, bugger you."

Internal metrics probably grade Tyene Sand really high TBH. 

I was thinking Oberyn “The Mandalorian” Martell.  More of a high contact guy than a true power hitter.  But he can get it done.  Thoroughly fearless approach…

[drewski6]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

That team won right after they got rid of some of the malcontents (AGon who complained about playing late before travel days). I'm not worried about the video games. Every MLB guy is a gamer and they talk about it on the broadcast. Giolito famously gets ready for his starts by playing MLB the Show. I can only imagine what the Globe would have said about that back then...

I would destroy Gio.

[drewski6]

Especially if he picked a righty-heavy lineup and i selected hunter greene.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, notin said:

I was thinking Oberyn “The Mandalorian” Martell.  More of a high contact guy than a true power hitter.  But he can get it done.  Thoroughly fearless approach…

Oberyn is a choker. C'mon man.